Wigan Athletic 5 v 3 Blackburn Rovers
Sunday 16th December 2007
Well, well, well, what a match to behold, sublime skill, great finishing, alarming defending, bad misses, last ditch tackles, eight goals, penalty save, dubious decisions, ticket tape yellow cards & Rovers fans leaving early with and without a Police escort.
The, in the end emphatic 5-3 win is what football is all about, sheer entertainment and a joy & privilege to be in the 16489 crowd at the theatre that is the JJB.
Latics stormed into a 3-0 lead with a robustious start that had Mark Hughes grimacing, first the Dutch maestro Landzaat who scored his 2nd in two games with a fine 1on1 with Friedel after a neat touch from hat-trick to be Bent.
Just two minutes on and Marcus ("A" team) Bent scored with a good finish from a narrowing angle across a despairing dive of the U.S.ofA keeper.
In fact Bent should have done a whole lot better before that when a Ryan Taylor cross hit him in the face, head the thing Marcus, head it.
Now then Ryan Taylor, I did muse in various scribings on the YOTAC site that a place must be found the lad, it was and at Koumas's expense, his whole hearted display touched with skill is what the whole team has been lacking, his crosses were "Beckhamesque" and his tackles crisp and clean for the most part. (Jason off in January ?)
2-0 up and with Heskey & Bent "leading the line" Blackburn were getting a footballing lesson when Mr Clatternburg followed his usual nature and awarded Daves old club a lifeline. Yes Heskey was cuddling Samba but that stuff goes on all the time in the eighteen yard box with very little intrusion from the men in black, even the Blackburn players failed to appeal and looked as surprised as any-one when the decision was given in their favour.
As it was Chris Kirkland guessed correctly and saved the spot kick from Beni McCartheys attempt.
Big Emile got his revenge however, 36 minutes had passed in this enthralling encounter when he & Samba tussled in the box, it looked like handball from the big No4 AND it looked liked he felled Heskey in the box not just outside of it.
Up stepped that man Taylor to hammer the ball across the box onto Paul Scharners head & into the Blackburn net, the big Austrian made up for the comical own goal of the week before, god knows how his head is feeling after ploughing the thunderbolt cross in.
3-0 against one of our local rivals, it seemed that all our Christmas's had come at once but this is Latics and the game was far from over.
Emile Heskey left the field on a stretcher after forty minutes and shortley after slack marking allowed the ever dangerous Santa Cruz to score a delightful goal deep into added on time, although it was a quality finish it did appear that Latics No1 was a little flat footed and I'm sure he was a bit disappointed to be beaten at his near post at a "nice height"
With the momentum now with the red & black halves, the Paraguayan made it 3-2 just five minutes after the restart, Latics struggled to to deal with bad boy Emerton's cross from the right, which hit Steven Reid bringing a great save out of Kirkland before the ball fell for Santa Cruz to hit home close in.
Game on, Rovers poured forward sensing a equalizer which they dually got but not before the daft Aussie Brett got a red card for upending Taylor in a off the ball incident. ( Sweet justice really as Emerton should have been sent off in the first half for scything the same player down, Mr Clatterburg gave only a throw in on that occasion.)
Bentley surged at the Latics rearguard and the ball fell kindly to the onrushing Warnock who crossed for Cruz to power a header past a stranded keeper, initially I thought Chris should have come for the cross but the ball was swinging away & I doubt if he would have got it anyway.
A three goal lead pulled back and against ten men, oh dear many thought, but our club stormed back in a grand finale, Rovers thought they could win it but Mr Bent had other ideas, the fourth goal came from the ever improving Antonio Valencia, his cross found Marcus on the far post to nod home.
Hat trick hero Cruz missed the chance of the match to make it 4-4 but headed over & 81 minutes on the unselfish Aghahowa who could have gone on to score his first for Latics, instead he squared it for his strike partner to tap into the net past a despairing dive from the Brad man.
5-3 and although we stay in 19th place, we might, just might be on the road to recovery.
Wigan: Kirkland, Taylor (Olembe 89), Boyce, Bramble, Kilbane, Valencia, Brown, Scharner, Landzaat, Bent, Heskey (Aghahowa 40), Aghahowa (Granqvist 90).
Subs Not Used: Pollitt, Koumas.
Booked: Heskey, Taylor, Aghahowa, Brown.
Goals: Landzaat 10, Bent 12, Scharner 37, Bent 66, 81.
Blackburn: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock, Bentley, Reid, Savage, Pedersen, McCarthy (Derbyshire 74), Santa Cruz (Dunn 90).
Subs Not Used: Brown, Mokoena, Olsson.
Sent Off: Emerton (57).
Booked: Samba, Emerton, Warnock, Savage.
Goals: Santa Cruz 45, 50, 61.
Att: 16,489
Ref: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).
Well, well, well, what a match to behold, sublime skill, great finishing, alarming defending, bad misses, last ditch tackles, eight goals, penalty save, dubious decisions, ticket tape yellow cards & Rovers fans leaving early with and without a Police escort.
The, in the end emphatic 5-3 win is what football is all about, sheer entertainment and a joy & privilege to be in the 16489 crowd at the theatre that is the JJB.
Latics stormed into a 3-0 lead with a robustious start that had Mark Hughes grimacing, first the Dutch maestro Landzaat who scored his 2nd in two games with a fine 1on1 with Friedel after a neat touch from hat-trick to be Bent.
Just two minutes on and Marcus ("A" team) Bent scored with a good finish from a narrowing angle across a despairing dive of the U.S.ofA keeper.
In fact Bent should have done a whole lot better before that when a Ryan Taylor cross hit him in the face, head the thing Marcus, head it.
Now then Ryan Taylor, I did muse in various scribings on the YOTAC site that a place must be found the lad, it was and at Koumas's expense, his whole hearted display touched with skill is what the whole team has been lacking, his crosses were "Beckhamesque" and his tackles crisp and clean for the most part. (Jason off in January ?)
2-0 up and with Heskey & Bent "leading the line" Blackburn were getting a footballing lesson when Mr Clatternburg followed his usual nature and awarded Daves old club a lifeline. Yes Heskey was cuddling Samba but that stuff goes on all the time in the eighteen yard box with very little intrusion from the men in black, even the Blackburn players failed to appeal and looked as surprised as any-one when the decision was given in their favour.
As it was Chris Kirkland guessed correctly and saved the spot kick from Beni McCartheys attempt.
Big Emile got his revenge however, 36 minutes had passed in this enthralling encounter when he & Samba tussled in the box, it looked like handball from the big No4 AND it looked liked he felled Heskey in the box not just outside of it.
Up stepped that man Taylor to hammer the ball across the box onto Paul Scharners head & into the Blackburn net, the big Austrian made up for the comical own goal of the week before, god knows how his head is feeling after ploughing the thunderbolt cross in.
3-0 against one of our local rivals, it seemed that all our Christmas's had come at once but this is Latics and the game was far from over.
Emile Heskey left the field on a stretcher after forty minutes and shortley after slack marking allowed the ever dangerous Santa Cruz to score a delightful goal deep into added on time, although it was a quality finish it did appear that Latics No1 was a little flat footed and I'm sure he was a bit disappointed to be beaten at his near post at a "nice height"
With the momentum now with the red & black halves, the Paraguayan made it 3-2 just five minutes after the restart, Latics struggled to to deal with bad boy Emerton's cross from the right, which hit Steven Reid bringing a great save out of Kirkland before the ball fell for Santa Cruz to hit home close in.
Game on, Rovers poured forward sensing a equalizer which they dually got but not before the daft Aussie Brett got a red card for upending Taylor in a off the ball incident. ( Sweet justice really as Emerton should have been sent off in the first half for scything the same player down, Mr Clatterburg gave only a throw in on that occasion.)
Bentley surged at the Latics rearguard and the ball fell kindly to the onrushing Warnock who crossed for Cruz to power a header past a stranded keeper, initially I thought Chris should have come for the cross but the ball was swinging away & I doubt if he would have got it anyway.
A three goal lead pulled back and against ten men, oh dear many thought, but our club stormed back in a grand finale, Rovers thought they could win it but Mr Bent had other ideas, the fourth goal came from the ever improving Antonio Valencia, his cross found Marcus on the far post to nod home.
Hat trick hero Cruz missed the chance of the match to make it 4-4 but headed over & 81 minutes on the unselfish Aghahowa who could have gone on to score his first for Latics, instead he squared it for his strike partner to tap into the net past a despairing dive from the Brad man.
5-3 and although we stay in 19th place, we might, just might be on the road to recovery.
Wigan: Kirkland, Taylor (Olembe 89), Boyce, Bramble, Kilbane, Valencia, Brown, Scharner, Landzaat, Bent, Heskey (Aghahowa 40), Aghahowa (Granqvist 90).
Subs Not Used: Pollitt, Koumas.
Booked: Heskey, Taylor, Aghahowa, Brown.
Goals: Landzaat 10, Bent 12, Scharner 37, Bent 66, 81.
Blackburn: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock, Bentley, Reid, Savage, Pedersen, McCarthy (Derbyshire 74), Santa Cruz (Dunn 90).
Subs Not Used: Brown, Mokoena, Olsson.
Sent Off: Emerton (57).
Booked: Samba, Emerton, Warnock, Savage.
Goals: Santa Cruz 45, 50, 61.
Att: 16,489
Ref: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).
Labels: Wigan vrs Blackburn
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