Wigan 1-2 Tottenham

Well there it is, the last game in September for Wigan, and hasn't it been a bad month for us? Gone without a win all month, and we lose Emmerson Boyce and Hugo Rodallega to injury.

I was hoping to start the new blog off with a win, and get to show you how great Wigan are. Well it was less great and more chaos from a Latics point of view. The first thing that went wrong was the starting of Jordi Gomez. I am not his biggest critic nor is biggest fan, but his presences in the team is not welcome.

We started, really how we meant to go on, by conceding in the first two minutes.

In typical fashion Figueroa passing the ball to none, Emmanuel Adebayor the first to latch on to stray pass and steam roll towards goal. Latics fans looked on nervously, as he flicked the ball back to a waiting Rafael Van der Vaart who vollyed the ball home. 1-0 and we looked pathetic.

It was all Tottenham for the first half. Wigan couldn't string more than two passes together before a Tottenham player would take it off them and look to attack. So it wasn't long before their second came along.

23 minutes in, a cross from Luka Modric was delt with by Gary Caldwell conceding a corner. The resulting corner saw Gareth Bale run free of everybody in the box to smash a header in for 2-0. It felt like it was going to be 9-1 all over again.

But by luck or by crook. We managed to hold on till half time with the score only at 2-0. We may have only have had 25% of the possession and no shots at goal. But we were still in the match.

The first thing Roberto did was to remove the woeful Jordi Gomez and bring on Ronnie Stam. A peculiar move you may have thought, bringing on a defender when we are 2-0, but within five minutes of the change it was 2-1.

Victor Moses who hadn't really been in the first half skipped past Walker like he wasn't there. Cutting the ball across the box to Mohammed Diame, who managed to pull away from his defender and roll the ball into the corner of the goal, now Latics were on top.

Finally we managed to string some passes together and push forward allowing Moses to get into the game more and attack the Tottenham defence. However it didn't last long.

Steve Gohuri, who was playing his first game of the season, was sent off for a second yellow card. The first which came in the first 20 minutes of the game was barely a free kick. However his second could have been an out right in some cases. Bale getting past him, Gohuri dived in and nearly got a toe on the ball. Alas he missed the ball and instead took Bale out totally.

That lost the game for Wigan, and allowed Tottenham to get some space.

We didn't let up though and pushed and pulled as much as we could against a strong Tottenham back four, who at times really didn't want the ball.

Connor Sammon and James McArthur came on to replace Ben Watson and Di Santo respectively, neither who had had the best of games.

Yet it would be through James McArthur that we nearly drew level first. After a great tackle by the scotsman on the half way line he ran all the way to the box, instead of being selfish and smashing the ball home, he tried to play in Stam. Who could only just get a toe on the ball as it went wide.

While shortly after Sammon won a header on half way, the ball fell to McArthur spotting Brad Frield off his line, he smashed the ball towards the goal. On target but not hard enough to beat the keeper.

Then came Spurs going close twice through Younes Kaboul. The first was a header 15-yards out from a corner. Heading just wide of the goal, Tottenham's celebrated as the side netting moved but it was shorted lived. The second was off a free kick 25-yards out. Scott Parker laying the ball back to Kaboul who made Ali Al Habsi tip the ball on to the cross bar.

2-1 it finished it could have been more for Tottenham, it could have been better for Wigan. But either way it end how the teams played.

I did expect more from Latics today, especially in the first half to come out fighting after losing two games when playing well. Yet we came up against a dazzling Tottenham side, who look like they are hitting top gear. It bodes well for teams who can come under pressure towards the end of games and mange to close them out.

The signs are good for Wigan in that we can play well when we go for it. While Martinez has got to wake up and stop playing Gomez, the lad is costing us points.