Premier League Match 25 - Wigan 2 Southampton 2

Exclusive: Leaked picture of the 2013/14 Wigan away kit

Today we have a trip to the DW Stadium in Wigan for the first time in Saints history.  It’s our first visit because we’ve never been drawn to go there in a Cup competition and Wigan’s ascent to the Premier League coincided with our plummet down the pyramid.  The DW Stadium is of course, narcissistically named after the Chairman, Dave Whelan who, like John Madejski at Reading, wanted everyone to know who the main man was whenever they visited.  Bearing in mind what a cock he was – we are somewhat fortunate that our ground is not called The Rupert Lowe Bowl or have some sort of Star Trek tribute name… mind you – he did try and call it the Friends Provident Stadium.

Anyway, I digress and I’ve only just started.  Saints have been bombarded with plaudits by the world at large after our performance at Man United and its remarkable how in the media – no one’s really bleating about the way we treated Nigel Adkins any more.  The local media are bleating before the game though that they can’t run a pre-game interview with Mauricio because the interpreter is ill. You couldn’t make it up really. They should just send Dave Merrington down there to tell him what Saints don’t want to do and Mauricio can nod a lot and say ‘Si’ which would make for great radio.  Job Done.

There was only one change to the starting team that played against United with Luke Shaw returning in place of Foxy.  Punch and Gaston were given another chance to impress despite both being hooked at half time on Wednesday.  Adam Lallana was again only deemed fit enough for the bench and Vegard Forren was only deemed fit enough to do laps of Staplewood on his own.

The start of the game is fairly even with Saints continuing the pressing game that they showed against Man United and Wigan trying to play but not really getting anywhere with it.  The first time they do is when Espinoza finds some space behind Clyne and bends in a cross which is met by the toe of di Santo but King Artur flung himself to his left to pull off an outstanding save.

The save was nearly worth double a couple of minutes later as Sir Rickie looked up and put a superb cross straight to Gaston who had beaten the offside trap but with no one near him and loads of time to take a touch if he wanted to and about 8 yards out, he lashed it first time miles over the bar.   It was like when you’re warming up before the start of a Sunday morning game at the park – someone crosses a ball so you try and be flash and just wave your leg at it and do a Peter Kay and volley it into a neighbouring garden or something.  To be honest it was absolute toss.

Wigan are struggling to get out of their half, such is the tenacity being shown by the forwards and midfielders to press the ball but they do win a corner and we cough up an easy goal as Beausejour’s kick is powerfully headed in by Caldwell whose job has been made very easy for him by Yoshida firstly losing him and then compounding the error by Kamikaze-ing in front of Caldwell and missing the header.  Fair enough, it’s a great header by Caldwell but a very preventable goal.

Getting back on level terms quickly would be a good thing and we nearly fluke one back within two minutes and McCarthy’s clearance from the centre of the Wigan defence, hits Morgan and flies towards the top corner, only for Al-Habsi to tip away for a corner.  The rest of the first half is one way traffic as we absolutely camp in the Wigan half but final ball failings are hurting us again with usually Gaston or Punch being the culprit.  We are winning it back very quickly each time we lose it but the closest we get to scoring is Big Jos meeting a corner and his header going about a foot wide with the keeper nowhere.  Half time and ridiculously, we are losing.

For the second game in a row, Gaston is deservedly hooked at half time with Steven Davis coming on to replace the allegedly injured Uruguayan.  The pattern of play is unaffected as we are all over them again and Cork’s cross looks for all the world like it’s heading for Sir Rickie and thus to the back of the net but as the big man dived forward to head it, Scharner got there first and flicked it away as Sir Rickie crawled along the ground having had the ball removed from the equation by the inconsiderate bastard!

“No one expects the Spanish Inquisition” said Monty Python and bearing in mind they were getting battered, Roberto Martinez made what on the face of it was a strange substitution with Gomez, an attacking midfielder, replacing Stam, the right wing back.  I guess it was to try and gain an element of control in midfield and Pochettino immediately decided to make at attacking change of his own with Lallana coming on for Clyne, with Corky going out to right back on the hour mark.

We nearly score straight after the substitution but it has nothing to do with Corky as Sir Rickie gets put away on the right where he turns Figueroa and then lays it across right into Morgan’s run but he goes with it with his right foot instead of his left and manages to not get a decisive touch on it from 6 yards.  ‘Merde’ as Morgan said to himself.  However, surely to Christ we’re going to score soon.

Our new right back was then involved in our long overdue equalizer as a panicky Wigan clearance went straight to him on the right hand edge of the box.  His cross came off a combination of J-Rod and a defender and gave Sir Rickie a 50-50 with Al- Habsi.  If there’s one man you want going for the ball to score a goal when he could potentially get clattered by a goalkeeper then it’s Sir Rickie and true to form, he got there first, stuck it in the net and got a slap off the keeper.  Get in!           

Straight away we’re back on the offensive as Punch weaves his way into the box but having worked a yard, his cross is scuffed along the ground and cleared for a corner.  Any height on it and Sir Rickie was totally unmarked at the back post.  The corner breaks out to Steven Davis who squirted it via a deflection to Yoshida who has a clear shot but he allows Lallana to take it off him and his shot on the turn smacks the post and bounces away.   In hindsight, this would have been best left to the Japanese as he had the better angle – granted he would probably have lashed it anywhere but in the net.

Luke Shaw, as he is now more and more prone to do, burst down the left a la Bale and skinned two players before getting his head up and picking out Sir Rickie beyond the back post with a superb cross.  Unfortunately, the main man managed to shank it back in the direction from which it came and out for a goal kick.  The fact that he missed as opposed to bursting the net has made no difference to his England chances.

Mauricio finally tires of Punch choosing the wrong option (or maybe he’s decided that he may need to go for a shite) and replaces him with James Ward-Prowse for the last 10 minutes.  He slots seamlessly into the side and following a Wigan corner sets J-Rod away down the left.  He bursts away from the last defender and reaches the bye-line before pulling it back perfectly to where Morgan has arrived after an 80 yard sprint.  Bang, 2-1, yeahhhhhhhhh, let’s go mental.  It’s a brilliant goal and expertly illustrates how we want to play.  The two players who made all the ground to get into the box were our defensive midfielder and our left back as Shaw was in close attendance as well.

There are just five minutes to go and you would usually expect an onslaught from the home side but Wigan have been so piss poor today, I just couldn’t see it coming.  However, they won a corner off of Corky and Beausejour’s kick was headed down by Scharner and with Shaw playing him onside, in came Maloney at the back post to knock it past Boruc for a totally undeserved equalizer.  Oh fuck off! A minute later and game over, 2-2, gutted!

Well what a kick in the nuts that was and how the fuck did we not win that.  We absolutely dominated this game and have ended up with just a draw due to two set pieces which we haven’t defended.  Wigan were very, very lucky as they created next to sod all from open play but if you can’t defend balls lobbed into your box then you’re always going to struggle to close a game out.  That’s the last 3 goals we’ve conceded – all from set plays that we should have defended better.  It’s just handing goals to the opposition for fucks sake, you want them to at least have to work a little bit hard for it. Having said that the defending cost us, we’ve also not created as many clear cut chances and scored as many goals as we should have done.   Bollocks! 

If you calm down and forget the scoreline for a minute – we were absolutely outstanding today, the closing down, the movement, the passing and the determination were all there.  Our final ball let us down and Punch and Gaston had absolute shockers out there, both giving it away virtually every time they had it.  I must mention J-Rod who I have not been a big fan of up to now.  He today actually looked somewhere near worth the amount of money we paid for him and his contribution to the second goal was immense.  Corky, Morgan and Davis all had superb games in midfield and JWP did his bit when he came on as well.  Sir Rickie really demonstrated what a good all-round centre forward he is which of course, won’t be enough to get him in the England squad despite being the top scoring English forward in the Premier League.  No, we’ll have to suffer Rooney doing his usual and having his 30^th inept England performance in a row.

I thought Wigan were shite to be honest and aside from the tenacity to hang in there and somehow nick a point, I don’t see how they will possibly finish above us.  A while ago I talked about a need to find 3 teams worse than us.  Back then I chose QPR and Reading and the 3^rd place was undecided.  Despite showing signs of life, I still see them both finishing below us, as will Wigan and Aston Villa.  We have to put some serious daylight between us and the relegation zone as soon as possible though, so we really need to start winning the games that we’re dominating.  It sounds obvious and that’s because it is.

Mauricio spoke of ‘disappointment for the players’ afterwards in that they hadn’t been rewarded for the performance and he’s dead right.  Wigan manager Martinez just waffled in an attempt to cover up that they were woeful and incredibly fucking lucky.  However, Wigan leave the game with one point, the same as us so I’d better stop moaning about it as the grapes are a bit sour.

Next up we have a nice easy one against Man City at SMS.  They are now 10 points behind United in 2^nd place so I think it’s safe to say that they can’t afford to drop any points if they want to win the league again.  Typically, their best player Yaya Toure got knocked out of the African Cup of Nations over the weekend so he’ll be back against us.  Still, we’ll have Mayuka back following Zambia’s exit so that evens it up.