Manchester United 4 v 0 Wigan Athletic

Saturday 6th October 2007

Wigan Athletic manager, Chris Hutchings, who was no doubt thinking of the last time he visited Old Trafford as a top flight manager, opted to give a debut to Cameroon international, Salomon Olembe in place of Nigerian hit man, Julius Aghahowa, which meant a change in formation to 4-5-1. Loanee, Marcus Bent was Latics' loan striker as Hutchings desperately wanted to avoid the 6-0 drubbing that his Bradford City team suffered here in 2000.

Up until the end of the first half the Blues held an average looking United side to just two chances. The first was an awful back pass to his goalkeeper, Chris Kirkland, by debutant Olembe. The former England keeper had to save smartly as the ball very nearly flew over him and into the net. Then, in the final minute of the first 45 minutes, Carlos Tevez broke in the Latics penalty area but his shot was deflected by the timely boot of captain, Mario Melchiot.

The start of the second half was an unmitigated disaster and there was a lot worse to come. The hosts came out flying, especially Wayne Rooney and Tevez and a succession of corners for the home side luckily came to nothing. Six minutes into the action Melchiot was forced to leave the pitch with Fitz Hall, who hasn't played a Premiership game all season, replacing him.

Within three minutes United had taken the lead and it was Tevez who finished off a beuatiful three-man move by United. Rooney had found Brazilian midfielder Anderson who passed precisely to Tevez who rounded both Kevin Kilbane and Kirkland to finally cause a noise to emanate from the Old Trafford stands.

Four minutes had elapsed before Ronaldo put the Red Devils 2-0 up courtesy of a fine header from a Ryan Giggs corner. By now Latics looked dejected and no player was more depressed than Olembe whose debut was brought to a premature end when Hutchings decided to replace him with Luis Antonio Valencia in the 66th minute. His first match action was a terrific shot that United keeper, Tomasz Kuszczak did very well to parry for Latics' first corner of the game.

But with Hutchings still playing just Bent up front in an effort to keep the score line respectable things then exploded into his face. The next ten minutes saw Kirkland deny Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez, but in the 76th minute he could do nothing to deny Ronaldo from gleefully slotting home after a marauding run down the left channel by Rooney who set the Portuguese hot shot clear on goal.

Hutchings must have been a relieved man when in the 81st minute Tevez was replaced by Luis Carlos Nani, but his thoughts must have been racing back to his previous visit to Old Trafford when Rooney headeded United 4-0 to the good after Danny Simpson had found him perfectly with a defence splitting pass with eight minutes of the game remaining. Fortunately, a jittery Latics side 'held on' to a 4-0 defeat and that is about the best that can be said of thier performance in the second half today.

WIGAN ATHLETIC, Chris Kirkland, Mario Melchiot, (Fitz Hall 51), Emmerson Boyce, Titus Bramble, Kevin Kilbane, Josip Skoko, Paul Scharner, Michael Brown, Jason Koumas, Marcus Bent, Salomon Olembe, (Luis Antonio Valencia 66). Subs not used, Michael Pollitt, Denny Landzaat, Julius Aghahowa.

Booked, Josip Skoko 50 mins

MANCHESTER UNITED, Tomasz Kuszczak, Gerard Pique, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, (Anderson 21), Patrice Evra, John O'Shea, (Danny Simpson 30), Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Carlos Tevez, (Luis Carlos Nani 81), Wayne Rooney.

Subs not used, Tom Heaton, Chris Eagles

Goal scorers, Carlos Tevez 54 mins, Cristiano Ronaldo 59 mins, 76 mins, Wayne Rooney

Booked, Wayne Rooney 31 mins

Referee, Mike Riley (Yorkshire)

Attendance, 75,300

Wigan Athletic 0 v 1 Liverpool

Saturday 29th September 2007



Fulham manager, Lawrie Sanchez, is probably in deep water following his comments about bad refereeing decisions costing his team points, week in and week out, especially against the so called 'bigger teams'. However, after this game fans of s called 'small clubs' can certainly see where he is coming from.



After this game Latics boss, Chris Hutchings, kept a dignified silence despite once again seeing his team denied a penalty. He also refused to comment on Marcus Bent's 'goal' that was disallowed despite no offence, as determined by FIFA rules. being committed. His opposite number, Rafa Benitez, also kept quiet, knowing that his side got out of jail at the JJB Stadium.



There was a surprise or two when the Latics team was announced. Hutchings decided to play Emmerson Boyce as Titus Bramble's partner in the middle of the defence with Andreas Granqvist demoted to the subs bench, whilst up front Julius Aghahowa was preferred to leading gal scorer Antoine Sibierski. One can only presume that 'Sibs' was unfit for duty.



Benitez, fielded his strongest possible team as the Reds desperately needed victory to consolidate their top four place, and this meant a strike pairing of £26.000.000 man Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt with Andriy Voronin on their bench.



An already injury hit Latics side, containing no natural left back, no fully match fit right sided player and two second choice strikers was set for a torrid time. Or so we thought.



In truth Liverpool just about came out on top after the first 45 minutes. The hosts were devoid of striking options but the rest of the team coped well enough when it came to defending against the marauding Jermaine Pennant and Torres. On the half hour mark Torres finally did get a break and he jinked past a static Latics back line, only for Chris Kirkland to spot the danger early, run out of his six yard area and block his shot. The ball rolled loose, heading for the Latics goal, but thankfully it trickled just wide of the post.



A few minutes later Torres went into 'pose mode'. A dangerous ball was floated into the Latics area by Pennant and the Spanish hit man painted a glorious picture of a perfect footballing specimen (for the benefit of the TV cameras), hoping for a 'wonder goal' and he ballsed up, big style. He had the time to score correctly by bringing the ball down and then having his pick of where to place the ball in the Latics net. Instead he over dramatically struck the ball wide!



Towards the end of the half Aghahowa, in a rare foray up front, was brought down in the Liverpool box but the referee, Mark Clattenburg, adjudged that he was offside moments before making his run. Then in the final minute of added time at the end of the first half 'Pool keeper, José Reina made a crude attempt to get Paul Scharner sent off. Rather than just collecting the ball and clearing it he decided to deliberately run at Scharner, whose back was turned, bounce off him and appeal for a foul!



For all or the first half Jamie Carragher and Steve Gerrard appeared to be talking to the referee and instructing him on when and where to penalise any Latics players, and it went on for all of the second period as well, it looked quite pathetic actually. Maybe tactics like this from the so called 'big clubs' need to be looked at and stamped on immediately.



The ineptitude of certain referees was brought into question again just six minutes after the restart, when Marcus Bent broke through on goal and slammed the ball past a bemused Reina. Unfortunately the referee's assistant failed to see Jermaine Pennant playing Bent onside, raised his flag and Clattenburg had no hesitation in disallowing the goal, following a tete a tete with Carragher!



It was now verging on the point of ridiculousness. In addition to this, three occupants of the front row of the press box (two blokes and a female) were inciting the Latics fans in front of them by constantly cheering for Liverpool and the club need to look into this situation and I have already despatched an e-mail to a relevant club official with regards to this matter, as I doubt for a moment they were genuine press people and were, more likely, just free loading Liverpool fans. Either way, I want an explanation as to why the unbiased press feel that upsetting genuine Latics fans by uttering disparaging comments about our team within our earshot is fair game. Or the reason these Liverpool fans were in the press box. And I expect something to be done about it.



Injury hit Latics were causing the cream of the crop problems by the hour mark and Benitez brought on Yossi Benayoun in place of Fabio Arelio and it was Benayoun who scored the only goal of the game, against the run of play, with just fifteen minutes remaining. It was a great individual goal and the press gang/fans behind me at least had the decency to keep their feeling themselves!



Over in the East Stand the goal prompted great celebrations from Wigan based Liverpool fans, this resulted in a few minor scuffles and a sad shake of the head by the majority of the sell out crowd. Hopefully, one day in the future, Wiganer's will not feel the need to jump on anybody else's glory hunting bandwagon.



The remainder of he game saw Latics continually pressing for the equaliser and in the final minute the chance of the game fell to Aghahowa. After another of Koumas' attacking runs at a faltering Liverpool defence his cross sailed over the static Reds' back line an landed perfectly on the head of the Nigerian hit man. It was harder for him to miss the net than score. He headed wide!



One plus from the game was the return of Ryan Taylor and hopefully his presence on the right side of midfield will steady the good ship Latics in the stormy seas of the Premiership.



WIGAN ATHLETIC, Chris Kirkland, Mario Melchiot, Emmerson Boyce, Titus Bramble, Kevin Kilbane, Paul Scharner, (Ryan Taylor 82), Michael Brown, Josip Skoko, Jason Koumas, Marcus Bent , Julius Aghahowa.



Subs not used, Michael Pollitt, Salomon Olembe, Andreas Granqvist, Fitz Hall.



Booked, Michael Brown 74 mins, Mario Melchiot 88 m ins



LIVERPOOL, Jose Reina, Sami Hyppia, Alvaro Arbeloa, Fabio Arelio, (Yossi Benayoun 56), Jamie Carragher, Steve Gerrard, John Arne Riise, Xavier Mascherano, Jermaine, Pennant, (Andriy Voronin 82), Fernando Torres, (Mohamed Sissoko 89), Dirk Kuyt.



Subs not used, Charles-Hubert Itandje, Steve Finnan.



Goal scorer, Yossi Benayoun 75 mins



Booked, Xavier Mascherano 74 mins



Referee, Mark Clattenburg (Tyne and Wear)



Attendance, 24,311