Sunday 8th November 2009
The Premier League
Wigan Athletic 1-1 Fulham
Wigan Athletic were denied the three points on offer by the extraordinarily good form of Fulham’s man of the match, goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. Without a shadow of doubt Schwarzer was the sole reason the game ended 1-1 as opposed to the hosts claiming their third London scalp of the season at the DW Stadium.
Latics manager Roberto Martinez opted to give Erik Edman his first taste of first team football this season in the left back berth, but other than that the team was unchanged from the one that lost so depressingly against Portsmouth last time out. Martinez’s counterpart, Roy Hodgson had to start without the services of Andy Johnson and Danny Murphy, but he welcomed back Damien Duff into the fold.
The game started fairly evenly with both teams enjoying a slick passing game on the superb pitch and the first chance of the game fell to the visitors in the twelfth minute when Erik Nevland was unlucky to see a looping shot clear Chris Kirkland but hit the post and away from the danger area. Within sixty seconds the hosts then took the lead when an Edman cross was headed down by Scharner and there was Emmerson Boyce to gleefully score his third goal for the club, his second this season.
Three minutes later Schwarzer produced the first of five world class saves, on this occasion denying Charles N’Zogbia the chance to put the Blues further ahead. With twenty minutes gone the Cottagers were hanging onto the game and Mohamed Diame struck a speculative shot from long range and was unlucky the ball was deflected for a corner, rather than hit the back of the Fulham net.
Five minutes later Schawarzer once again came to the visitors’ rescue with a superb acrobatic save to deny Hugo Rodallega. By this stage of the game Latics, on any other day, would have been three goals to the good and cruising. But then in the 38th minute Damien Duff conned referee Phil Dowd by winning a free kick, the result of which led to the Cottagers equalizer. Duff himself sent the free kick sailing into the Latics penalty area and Titus Bramble foolishly brought down Clint Dempsey leaving Dowd with no option but to blow for the penalty. Dempsey brushed himself off and took the spot kick himself to level the scores.
From that moment on it was Fulham who took control of the game and it was something of a relief that the whistle for half time was blown to give the hosts a chance to regroup in time for the second half.
Neither manager saw fit to make any changes for the second period and it was the visitors who just about had the edge until the 57th minute when Paul Scharner was through on goal with only Schwarzer to beat, and yes you’ve guessed it, he made another outstanding save to keep the game level. The crowd of 16,172, Sixteen thousand of whom were Wiganers, began to sense that this was not going to be their day and this seemed to be confirmed when Schwarzer once again denied N’Zogbia with a superlative stop in the 73rd minute.
In the 83rd minute Chris Kirkland was forced to make a very good save from Duff who had been making a nuisance of himself throughout the whole game. By now the hosts were spent as an attacking force and but for great Bramble tackles on Bobby Zamora late in the game the result could have been a lot worse than it actually was.
WIGAN ATHLETIC, Chris Kirkland, Mario Melchiot, Emmerson Boyce, Titus Bramble, Erik Edman, (Scott Sinclair 78), Charles N’Zogbia, Hendry Thomas, Paul Scharner, Mohamed Diame, Jason Scotland, (Jason Koumas 90), Hugo Rodallega
Goal scorer, Emmerson Boyce 13 mins
Booked, Erik Edman 54 mins, Titus Bramble 84 mins
FULHAM, Mark Schwarzer, John Pantsil, Brede Hangeland, Aaron Hughes, Paul Konchesky, Clint Dempsey, Chris Baird, Jonathan Greening, (Dickson Etuhu 80), Damien Duff, Bobby Zamora, Erik Nevland, (Zoltan Gera)
Goal scorer, Clint Dempsey (pen) 35 mins
Booked, Dickson Etuhu 90 mins
Referee Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
Attendance, 16,172
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