Magpies crow @ The DW

Well we are out of the cup, 10/10 to the Notts County fans who matched their team with a never say die attitude and were rewarded with a trip to The Cottage.
In front of 5519 hardy souls a strong looking Latics line-up never seemed to really get going, they always appeared to be in second gear and looked like they were waiting for someone else to do the job.
Like someone said to me on the way out of The DW they played like they didn’t want to get injured !
Kasper Schmeichel had a busy evenings work but a keeper of his calibre the saves he made you would have expected him to make anyway.
Meanwhile Vladimir Stojkovic our erratic keeper made two decent saves and a couple of stunners to keep it at 0-0, however it would be good if he confidently came for crosses especially in the six-yard box.
Emmerson Boyce was cursing me thinks the performance of the team as a whole when replaced by Hugo Rodallega on 86minutes. (Who in turn came on way to late to have any impact) Emmerson did ok at right back trying to overlap and keep his defensive duties intact.
Gary Caldwell has now scored two, his OG was a shade unlucky but if you get balls into the box you never know, Latics please take note!
He seems to be settling in but once again we concede from a corner, so he must take some responsibility for that along with Titus.
Titus Bramble, was immaculate for most of the time but ¾ of the way thro’ the game serious errors crept into his game which didn’t amount to much thankfully.
Like Caldwell he should be dominating the box from set-pieces and didn’t….. again! Maynor Figueroa for all the talk of big money transfers hasn’t had a good season, didn’t really do the simple things well.
A couple of long range passes is not enough for ninety minutes work, often caught out of position.
Scott Sinclair sparkled in stages, drifted in & out of the game and eventually gave up with the ineptitude around him.
Mohamed Diame forcefully tried to inject passion into forward thrusts but the end pass was poor, was carrying Gomez and Koumas especially in the first half, James McCarthy replaced him on the hour, Jimmymac treid in vain to get some enthusiasm into the home sides play but it was not to be.
Jordi Gomez the fancydan of The DW, you either hate him with a vengeance or see something that the vast majority don’t. I fall into the latter, the problem with Jordi is he doesn’t run around like Jimmy Bullard nor does he tackle anything above a grasshopper height that Cattermole did, instead he tries to pick out the killer pass and/or play neat triangles.
Having someone with guile and skill is wonderful for a team but the Wigan fans want spit & feathers along with blood & thunder, however a bit of craft, a luxury player is required to unlock organized defences.
Jason Koumas, well he seemingly just does not want to play at all, his demeanour as viewed from the stands is all wrong.
With his talent he could have been a superstar at the club, he just chooses not to use it, which is such a waste, playing him & Gomez in the middle was fatal, you can only have one or the other in my view.
Jason was replaced by Charles N’Zogbia again on the hour mark, the Zog showed his talent but ran into crowds of defenders, always choosing to cut inside.
Could and should have turned the game with his undoubted skills but once again apathy struck the team with him included.
Paul Scharner did his usual headless chicken routine, tested Kasper a couple of times but ran out of steam along with his careless team mates.
Which leaves us with Jason Scotland, tried hard again, missed a glorious one on one with the keeper after a peach of a pass from Gomez.
Its easy to groan at Jason, a non scoring forward is a typical fall guy but apart from the early Jordi pass, the service to him (and not just in this match) was woeful.
If you don’t get it into the box or into space then what is he supposed to do?
Rooney would struggle at Latics because of the lack of a decent pass/thro’ ball, Jason kept coming deeper and deeper to get the ball but because then he is so far away from goal he inevitably lost it due to sheer weight of defenders in front of him.
No Latics midfielders bust a gut to support him when he had it, what ever happened to the thought of pass and move?
I doubt if he will ever make it at Premiership level but at least he tries all be it unsuccessfully, Latics fans won’t have seen the best of him, shame in a way.
The unused substitutes were Mike Pollitt, Antonio Amaya, Ben Watson & Hendry Thomas, I watched Polly at half-time, he was forlorn on his own trying to keep warm and focused but ended up kicking a ball against the advertisement hoardings, a great club man and lets be right he has never let the club down when called upon.