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Wigan Athletic vs. AFC Bournemouth
Date: Saturday 11th January 2014
Venue: The DW Stadium
Referee: Geoff Eltringham
Score: 3-0
Uwe Rosler continues to prove himself at Championship level as Wigan made it seven games unbeaten after overcoming AFC Bournemouth 3-0 on Saturday.
In true Rosler style, Wigan came out of the blocks quickly and scored after just five minutes as Marc-Antoine Fortune scored his second goal of the season.
The score should have been more at half-time but, one nil it stayed. Until Elliott Ward sliced the ball into the back of his own net after Fortune mishit a shot from 12 yards.
In the last minute of the game, Jordi Gomez made the score-line reflect Wigan’s dominance as he fired home from 35 yards after the Bournemouth defence game him too much time on the ball.
Wigan, who were looking like a mid-table side just seven games ago, are 10th after this win and just three points off the play-off places with a game in hand over their rivals.
Within the first two minutes, Nick Powell had a shot saved from 10 yards out after a well worked break away from the Latics.
Then, Fortune demonstrated to the Wigan faithful why he was bought. Powell failed to control the ball on the edge of the box but it made its way to Fortune who shot on the turn into the top corner of Lee Camp’s goal.
Bournemouth were looking less than impressive when it came to attacking options and it was Wigan who continued to be dominant in the game.
James McArthur, Callum McManaman and Nick Powell all squandered chances before the half-time whistle and, with minutes to go in the half, Ben Watson had a close range free-kick saved by the fingertips of Camp.
It was much of the same early on in the second half and, in the 57th minute, Fortune received the ball in space 12 yards from goal. He touched the ball up and mishit a volley towards goal. A horrific kick from Ward saw the ball sliced into his own net to double Wigan’s lead.
It was then Bournemouth’s turn to have a decent ten minutes or so and it took the world class keeping of Ali-Al Habsi to deny Lewis Grabban and Marc Pugh.
Jordi Gomez rounded the game off nicely as he scored a screamer after being given too much room 35 yards from goal.
Despite a 3-0 score line, Wigan were wasteful in front of goal and it definitely should have been in excess of 5-0 in the end. Another small problem for Wigan is that teams are continuing to get behind their full-backs in games because they are pushing too far up the field. Apart from these two small things, Wigan are looking like promotion candidates finally.