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Season 2011-12
Wigan Athletic (a) Premier League


 

 
Date:
Saturday 26th April 2012, 3pm

Venue:
 DW Stadium

Conditions:
deflating

Admission: £25

Programme:
£3
 

Wigan Athletic

Newcastle United

4 - 0

 

Teams

Goals

13 mins Shaun Maloney pushed the ball out to the Wigan and found Emerson Boyce, who moved infield to evade the lurking Davide Santon and supplied a deep cross. Franco Di Santo leapt above the grounded Coloccini but failed to make contact with the ball and it dropped on to the head of Victor Moses, who beat marker Mike Willamson to back-head it beyond the helpless Tim Krul 0-1

1
5 mins Trouble came down the opposite flank this time, as Jean Beausejour pushed down the wing after picking up a pass from Moses. Coloccini slid in to hook a low cross clear from the near corner of his own six yard box but only succeeded in teeing up Moses, who grabbed his second of the game by smartly rifling home a low effort beyond Krul and into the far side of the net  0-2

36 mins A neat passing triangle on the Wigan left saw Shaun Maloney and Beausejour involved before Di Santo's first time ball bisected Yohan Cabaye and Williamson before reaching Maloney. The former Celtic player galloped away from Danny Simpson before finding the same spot in Krul's goal as his side's second goal with a low effort 0-3

45 mins From disaster to calamity, as Di Santo's attempted forward flick from the centre of the field rebounded off Williamson's boot. Maloney and Boyce swapped passes as a back-pedalling United defence stood and watched, before Di Santo curled an outstanding shot from just outside the "D" past Krul's right hand  0-4

Half time: Latics 4 Magpies 0

Full time:
Latics 4 Magpies 0

We Said


Alan Pardew said:

"We got caught out by that one word – intensity - and I think, if you don’t do that, then in any Premier League game that is something that will make you look bad.

"But I don’t want to talk about my team’s disappointment because Wigan were brilliant today. They are as good as we have played against for seven games, of which six we won. So great credit to Roberto Martinez and his team, who were superb.

"We failed as a team, not as individuals. It is important that we go to Chelsea with an away game mentality, which we didn’t do today. When you’ve won six on the trot you can go away and think ‘we’ll win today’.

"I was pleased in the second half. Wigan’s fourth goal was absolutely special and was their key goal. I did think that if I could get them in at half-time then I knew I could tighten it up, get some intensity in our play and then we would get chances."The second half proved that. But the fourth goal really killed it for Wigan.

"If we can give Papiss Cisse a platform, in terms of us not conceding goals, then he can win us games, and he had one or two chances in the second half. But we couldn’t change the mood in Wigan’s team and it was a day that, really, was all Wigan. You have to say that."I don’t have any worries about the season tailing away or anything like that. We have three massive games coming up, and I know we will get the intensity into the team for them.

"The possibility of Champions League football has not gone away from us. People were saying if we beat Wigan we still had three tough games and perhaps that made us slightly complacent.

"We talked about it beforehand, tried to make sure it didn't happen but it's one thing to talk about it and another to match the intensity Wigan showed in the first half-hour. We just didn't get a grip in the first 30 minutes, and then they scored an absolutely special goal right on the stroke of half time to make it four.

"I don't want to take anything away from Wigan, they were brilliant but I don't think complacency is going to be a problem any more. We have now lost to Wigan and we still have three tough games. I'm expecting a reaction on Wednesday night, we know what we have to do.

"You can get a bit carried away by winning six games in a row, but it's is important to take a proper away game mentality to Chelsea on Wednesday. Maybe we didn't really bring that to Wigan, so we can't complain about the result."

They Said


Roberto Martinez commented:


"It was a huge win today and we have two more huge games against Blackburn and Wolves. This result is fantastic for the fans but if we don't achieve our aim of staying in this league then it is going to mean nothing.

"It is a joy to see how Victor is growing at this club. He is the sort of player you'd pay money to watch and that is down to his raw talent and the manner in which he has been working and understanding the game.

"It was important that after the result against Fulham we got back to the level of performances we'd seen before that game against the likes of Manchester United. If anything we did that but found new confidence and belief in front of goal which was a joy to watch.

"In the first half we worked really hard to stop a Newcastle side that came here with real momentum after six consecutive victories. We stopped them playing and then slowly began to dominate the game for which I hope the players get huge credit.

"The chances we've been creating lately are down to the pattern of play that the players are showing a real understanding in and their movement off the ball was very effective. Then, in front of goal, the finishes from Franco Di Santo, Shaun Maloney and Victor Moses were top class - that comes from belief and this group deserves massive credit for their hard work.

"In the second half we switched off a little and were perhaps a little too concerned with the score-line rather than playing the game which is normal. Overall, the performance has taken us another step forward and now we need to make sure we get ready for the Blackburn game.

"We're still in a situation where we are fighting against relegation which is not going to change, but it's fair to say that April has had the biggest football impact in the history of Wigan Athletic for which everyone at the Club deserves huge credit. Now we've got two more massive cup finals were the same levels are required from everyone."

 

Stats


Newcastle's shutout record came to an end after 411 minutes - the best run by a Magpies side in Premier League games since the 1996/97 season.

United have now conceded 31 goals away from home in the PL this season, with two games still to play. That's one more than the 30 that ended up in our net on the road during the whole of the 2008/09 relegation season.

Bad days at the office 2011/12:

Fulham (a) lost 2-5, conceded 4 goals in 16 minutes
Spurs (a) lost 0-5, conceded 4 goals in 30 minutes
Wigan (a) lost 0-4, conceded 4 goals in 32 minutes
Norwich (a) lost 2-4, conceded 4 goals in 43 minutes

Flashback to 2010/11:
Arsenal (h) drew 4-4 conceded 4 goals in 26 mins

Mags @ Latics:

2011/12 lost 0-4
2010/11 won 1-0 Sh.Ameobi
2008/09 lost 1-2 Guthrie
2007/08 lost 0-1
2006/07 lost 0-1
2005/06 lost 0-1 (LC)
2005/06 lost 0-1
1953/54 won 3-2 (FA) Broadis, Keeble, White*

(* at Springfield Park; all others at JJB/DW Stadium)

Full record against Wigan: 

  P W D L F A
SJP 6 4 2 0 11 6
JJB/DW 6 1 0 5 2 9
League 12 5 2 5 13 15
SJP(FA) 1 0 1 0 2 2
SP 1 1 0 0 3 2
JJB(LC) 1 0 0 1 0 1
Cup 3 1 1 1 5 5
Tot 15 6 3 6 18 20

 

Waffle



 

United travelled to the DW Stadium on Saturday with the opportunity to lengthen a winning run of six games, extend their shutout sequence further past the six hour mark and see Papiss Cisse add his name to our roll of honour by scoring in a seventh successive game.

Facing them were a Wigan side fresh from conquests of Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, as their annual escape from relegation began to gather pace.

Not even the most optimistic Latics fan - or pessimistic Magpie follower - could have foreseen what was to come in the opening half though, as the Premier League's lowest home scorers netted four without reply in 32 minutes.

After some forgettable opening exchanges, the game burst into life and the away support were left reeling by two Victor Moses goals. Further strikes then followed from Shaun Maloney and Franco Di Santo as a re-run of our White Hart Lane horror show unfolded. And like that drubbing by Spurs, everything the home side hit went in - and we were inept in the extreme right across the field.

Some hasty re-jigging of the defence at 0-2 by Alan Pardew saw an unchanged United side go to three at the back, with Davide Santon switching to the right and the shell-shocked Danny Simpson move across - not that it made much difference, as Wigan continued to find space on both wings.

However Newcastle resumed after the break with no substitutions and their more usual formation - although little improvement in energy and creativity. Too many players picked the same game to have a dip in form and the wearing of the orange kit led to unwelcome comparisons with the similarly -clad Swansea on days when their tappy lappy passing game proves to be no threat to opponents.

An improvement had to come and it arrived just after the hour mark when Papiss Cisse came to life and tested Al Habsi for the first time, before striking both bar and post as Wigan conceded ground for the first time. Hatem Ben Arfa meanwhile began to buzz around the edge of the box and fizzed one effort just wide, while a few other half-chances were spurned and some poor runs were rightly penalised by the female official.

Bowing to the inevitable though, Pardew gave some pitch time to Ryan Taylor, James Perch and Shane Ferguson as he withdrew Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye ahead of Wedneday's trip to Chelsea. Wigan almost had the final word though, with only a last-gasp clearance by Fabricio Coloccini late on preventing our third five-goal pasting of the season.

Perhaps an excess of recent feelgood newspaper articles and gushing interviews had collectively gone to our heads - but if this wake up call ahead of the final three tests of the season is heeded, then it's not the end of the world, although that buzzword momentum is now seemingly back in possession of Chelsea and Spurs.

The margin of the loss isn't great for our confidence but it didn't do our league standing irreparable damage, with goal difference not really now an important consideration. And as for the Champions League quest - only time will tell whether the Stoke victory proved to be our high water mark and reality is now starting to bite ever so slightly, as we get into what was always a tricky quartet of fixtures to end the season with.

Nobody seriously expected that we'd be able to maintain our rare run of form until season's end and given the multiple highpoints of the last eight months, it's difficult to maintain the immediate post-match feelings of anger, frustration and disappointment, 

What came as a particularly nasty surprise today though was the manner, margin and location of this defeat. Typical Newcastle. Having been given a timely reminder of his side's periodic defensive deficiencies, Alan Pardew then reportedly spent Sunday scouting centre halves in Holland. Given that his trip that was presumably planned before this setback, there's some reassurance that he's aware of the need to look beyond recent form and results into the composition of his squad. 

Regardless of whether we end up in a Champions League slot or not though, if we were to begin next season with the same squad as we end this one, we'd take that as a collective failure to realise our undoubted potential. 

Biffa

PS:
Condolences to Irish Mag John McQuaid on the sad loss of his wife, Mary.


Page last updated 01 February, 2013