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Wigan Athletic (a) Premier Reserve League
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Date:
Wednesday 5th October 2005, 7.30pm
Venue: Robin Park sports
complex |
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Wigan Athletic |
Newcastle United |
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1 - 1 |
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| Half time: | 1 - 0 | |
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| Score Sheet: | ||
 Smith (38) |
Chopra (49pen)
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Teams |
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Pollitt |
Caig Baxter Farman Elliott Ramage Gate Brittain Smylie Chopra Ameobi Marshall |
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| Substitutes: | ||
| Hazeldine for Litchfield (81) | Edgar for Marshall (46) Carroll for Chopra (62) |
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| Subs not used: | ||
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Croll Waterhouse Roberts Stephan |
Forster Cavener Critchlow |
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| Bookings: | ||
| None |
Smylie Ameobi Ramage |
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| Dismissals: | ||
| None | Smylie | |
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| Referee: Rob Lewis - the linesman who failed to spot that Pedro Mendes scored past Roy Carroll at Old Trafford back in January 2005. | ||
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| Attendance: 178 including 6 foolhardy travellers from the North East. | ||
Goals |
52mins Smith shot 0-1
Half time: Latics 1 Newcastle 0
52mins Chopra penalty 1-1
We Said |
Tommy Craig said:
"It was a tough game because both teams were committed. We had the chances to have won handsomely, but Wigan were always in the game. We had to be alert.
"We missed a host of chances in the first half, and we were beginning to get the upper hand when they went down the park and scored.
"It was a sloppy goal from our point of view.
"The ball bounced twice in the box, over the head of Robbie Elliott. We didn't clear the danger and their lad stuck it away.
"We had missed some real chances in the half, and I had to gee them up at half-time.
"And they went out and worked their socks off.
"We bombarded their goal, then weathered the last five minutes when they had a succession of corners."
Waffle |
A poor game at Robin Park on Wednesday evening as the Reserves came away with a point, leaving the home side still searching for their first victory of the season after eight games.
United fielded Ameobi and Chopra up front for
the second successive game, but neither particularly impressed in the opening
stages - Ameobi blasting his shot at Wigan 'keeper Pollitt on 10 minutes after
being released by Gate.
And with Chopra frequently falling foul of the linesman's offside flag, it took
us until 32 minutes to threaten again, when the unmarked Ameobi headed over from
a free kick.
Shola again had the chance to put us ahead on 37 minutes, but he was unable to
replicate the cool finish of N'Zogbia at Blackburn when faced with a similar
chance after Wigan surrendered possession in their own area.
We were made to pay for that miss within a minute, as the Latics
counter-attacked and striker Jonathan Smith shot home after a left wing cross
dropped between Kris Gate and Robbie Elliott.
At the interval coach Tommy Craig replaced the ineffective Marshall with David
Edgar and within four minutes of the restart we were level.
Daryl Smylie's through pass down the centre of
the field put Ameobi through on goal and as he prepared to shoot he tangled with
defender Steve McMillan and tumbled over.
Referee Lewis pointed to the spot and Michael Chopra converted low to the
keeper's left for his third goal in two games at this level.
However, Chops injured his right leg in a
collision with the Wigan keeper on 62 minutes and played no further part as he
limped off before a watching Dean Saunders.
It's a recurrence of the injury that sidelined Chopra earlier in the season, but
as yet it's unclear how severe the knock is.
Back to the game and chances to claim the victory did appear in the closing
stages as the Latics tired.
Substitute Andy Carroll found himself in a great position on 76 minutes, only to
sky his shot over the bar and three minutes from time Gate couldn't connect, as
Carroll's centre from the right flashed across the Wigan six yard box.
Smylie picked up his second booking a minute
from time and was harshly red-carded - much to his disgust.
The game was played at the Robin Park Sports Centre in the shadow of the JJB
Stadium, with only a small number of fans dotted around the single main stand.
Reports