Latics Battle to Make Point

Wigan Athletic rolled up at Goodison Park off the back of four consecutive away defeats in the Premier League, five if you count the Carling Cup exit at Arsenal, Roberto Martinez looked determined to make a point and so it turned out.

The Latics team saw the return of Hugo Rodallega, Mauro Boselli dropping to the bench to make way, but they set up with a defensive looking formation that appeared more concerned with keeping Everton out than making Hugo`s return a scoring one.

For the first twenty minutes Everton attacked but without much bite and the closest they came was a Marouane Fellaini header which sailed over the bar, the rest of the first half descended into a scrappy affair with niggling free kicks being given away by both sides.

At half-time Latics replaced Tom Cleverley with Ronnie Stam but still found themselves somewhat under the cosh with Everton enjoying a purple patch around the hour mark, but two cracking Al-Habsi saves and a Cahill effort that cracked against the post kept Wigan in the game.

As the 2nd half wore on Latics started to become a little more adventurous, firstly Diame evaded three Everton challenges to find his way one on one with Tim Howard only to get the ball tangled up in his long legs, chance gone

With time running out Latics broke, Ben Watson slid the ball to an unmarked Ronnie Stam who hit a thundering drive that Tim Howard somehow managed to get his thumb to and divert around the far post for a corner.

Not the best footballing display from the Latics but a dogged, determined, fighting display, they rode their luck a little at times but if we are to climb the table then tight performances away from home just might be the order of the day.

One sour note was the fact that both Hendry Thomas and Maynor Figueroa received their 5th bookings of the season and as such both will be missing for next weeks visit of Aston Villa to the DW Stadium.

Ali Al-Habsi, great game by the Omani Everton: Howard; Coleman, Distin, Jagielka, Baines; Neville, Fellaini, Rodwell, Pienaar (Anichebe, 67); Cahill, Saha (Beckford, 60)

Subs: Mucha, Bilyaletdinov, Osman, Yakubu, Duffy

Latics: Al Habsi; Gohouri, S. Caldwell, Alcaraz, Figueroa; Thomas (McArthur, 66), Diame; N'Zogbia, Watson, Cleverley (Stam, 46); Rodallega

Subs: Pollitt, G. Caldwell, Gomez, Boselli, McManaman, Mustoe

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