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Town 1-3 Wigan Athletic
Saturday, 15th Mar 2014 17:08

Wigan stretched their winning run to eight games in all competitions after coming from behind to beat the Blues 3-1 at Portman Road. Tommy Smith put Town in front in the 19th minute, but goals from James McClean and Leon Barnett saw the Latics go in ahead at the break with McClean adding his second and Wigan's third in 77th minute.

Loanee Jonny Williams was handed his full Town debut with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake dropping to the bench in an otherwise unchanged side.

Williams started behind Daryl Murphy in a 4-4-1-1 formation, while former Blues loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe was in the Latics XI.

Smith blocked an early Martyn Waghorn shot after the on-loan Leicester man had cut in from the right but otherwise there was little action of note in either penalty area in the opening five minutes.

The Blues threatened for the first time in the sixth minute after Emmerson Boyce had fouled Stephen Hunt on the Town left. The Irishman whipped over the freekick and Paul Anderson sent a looping header onto the roof of Ali Al-Habsi’s net.

Jordi Gomez shot wide from distance for the Latics in the 15th minute, however, it had been the Blues doing most of the pressing, although without having created an opportunity. One or two debatable freekick decisions hadn’t endeared referee David Coote to the home crowd.

On 17 Paul Anderson, now on the left with Hunt on the right, crossed low and Murphy hit a shot on the turn which had Al-Habsi scrambling across to his left to paw the ball wide.

Two minutes later, the Blues went in front. Anderson was fouled just outside the area to the right and Hunt laid the ball to Cresswell, whose shot was blocked.

It ran to Cole Skuse, whose effort was also blocked but Wigan were unable to clear and the former Bristol City man eventually nodded the ball back into the danger area and Smith hooked home his fourth goal of the season from eight yards.

But the lead would last only three minutes. Boyce fed Marc-Antoine Fortune down the Wigan right and the former West Brom man cut the ball back to James McClean, who had pulled off his marker and slammed the ball past Dean Gerken from 10 yards.


Leon Barnett did well to head Williams’s cross out ahead of Murphy on 26 Town having broken quickly after a spell of Wigan possession in the Blues’ half.

Soon after McClean had been booked for a 37th minute foul on Williams, the Blues had a great chance to go back in front. Cresswell cut the ball across from the left, Anderson laid it back to Luke Hyam 10 yards out but the midfielder smashed the ball deep into the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand when he ought to at least have hit the target.

Three minutes before half-time, the visitors went ahead. Skuse fouled McClean on the Wigan left and Gomez curled the ball to the edge of the Town six-yard box from where Leon Barnett powered home a free header which Gerken couldn’t stop.

Neither side threatened to add to the goals in the remaining minutes with Town probably feeling they really oughtn’t to have been behind at the break.

Having gone in front, McClean was given far too much space in the penalty area for the first goal, while the Blues’ defending from the freekick which led to the second was even more questionable with Barnett and a number of his team-mates having escaped their markers and the ball in an area where Gerken could have claimed.

Hyam will feel he should have put his team back in front via his chance just prior to Wigan’s second goal.

Town threatened to equalise soon after the restart when Williams hassled Boyce into giving the ball away inside the Latics’ area. His shot from a tight angle deflected to Hunt, whose low cross found Murphy, but the striker was unable to divert the ball goalwards.

The Blues continued to push to get back on terms and on 53 Murphy tried to burst between Ivan Ramis and Barnett but the former Norwich centre-half stabbed the ball out of play.

From the corner, the Latics broke in numbers with Cresswell left three on one. Fortunately, James McArthur underhit his pass to Fortune and the Blues’ left-back intercepted.

On 57 Hunt and Ramis were both booked, the Blues winger for inadvertently catching the defender with an arm and the grounded Wigan man for swinging his arm at the Irishman as he remonstrated with him for his exaggerated reaction to the aerial challenge. The Sir Bobby Robson Stand were calling for a red for Ramis, which some referees might well have issued.

Paul Green replaced Skuse two minutes into the final half hour, then the visitors switched one-time Town target Nick Powell for Waghorn.

Green was booked within five minutes for a foul on Gomez. From the freekick, Barnett was just unable to get a touch at the far post having again escaped the Town backline. Paul Taylor replaced Anderson for the final 19 minutes, then soon afterwards Rob Kiernan replaced Barnett, the Wigan defender having suffered a knock.

The Latics increased their lead in the 77th minute after Green was hassled into surrendering possession to Gomez just inside the Town half. The Spaniard found Fortune on the right and the striker sent over a low cross and McClean tapped home his second of the afternoon at the far post.

Having gone 3-1 behind, Town switched Williams for Ebanks-Blake. Moments later, Green’s 25-yard effort was deflected wide, then after the resultant corner had been half-cleared and sent back into the box, Ebanks-Blake took the ball down on his chest but his shot ricocheted wide off a defender. Soon after, Taylor hit a low shot from the left which Al-Habsi saved.

Christophe Berra failed to get a touch on a dangerous Cresswell freekick from the left as the Blues continued to push, albeit not overly convincingly. Wigan remained a greater threat on the break.

Town once again gifted the visitors an opportunity in the 89th minute, Hyam surrendering possession to Powell, who rather fortunately for the Blues screwed his shot well wide.

In injury time Taylor and Murphy both saw efforts blocked but a Town comeback never seriously looked in prospect once they had conceded the third Wigan goal.

Overall, the Blues could have no complaints about the result. As at Leicester recently, they were beaten by a better side but one they had given a significant helping hand by gifting them their goals.

Manager Mick McCarthy is likely to have been less than impressed by his side’s defending for all three Latics goals.

Town pushed for an equaliser in the early stages of the half but probably ought to have conceded prior to McClean’s second with Wigan spurning decent opportunities, particularly their three on one break after a Town corner.

The scoreline and results elsewhere see the Blues stay in ninth in the table, but now six points from sixth with a trip to Brighton up next week.

Ipswich: Gerken, Chambers (c), Berra, Smith, Cresswell, Skuse (Green 62), Hyam, Anderson (Taylor 71), Hunt, Williams (Ebanks-Blake 78), Murphy. Unused: Loach, Mings, Tabb, Richardson.

Wigan: Al Habsi, Boyce, Perch, Ramis, Barnett (Kiernan 74), McArthur, Tunnicliffe, Gomez, Waghorn (Powell 64), McClean (Crainey 82), Fortune. Unused: Carson, McEachran, McManaman, Maynard. Referee David Coote (Nottinghamshire). Att: 16,047 (Wigan: 381)


Photo: Action Images



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nunny97 added 20:25 - Mar 15
There's no good moaning every week about this boring MM way of playing, that's the way we are going to play with the current players we have and we're better off playing like that and winning (more than we have for the last few seasons) than playing a better style but losing. When we hopefully add to our squad in the summer with some more attacking/creative players that's when we'll be able to play a more attacking creative style.
-7

masetheace added 20:27 - Mar 15
Time for a reality check guys . No-one goes from relegation material to promotion candidates in one season especially with no money spent on the team . A year of consolidation with a top ten finish is progress and a basis to push on from next season, if hopefully the purse strings are sensibly loosened .
7

Cloddyseedbed added 20:29 - Mar 15
Very strange decision to play Murphy up top on his own at home. Wide players were supposed to get up and support him but that was never going to work with the players we had on the pitch. Murphy battled hard against an impossible task, credit to him. Hunt chased everything and closed down well. Anderson- I have not seen this player have one single game that has proved to me he is an improvement to the squad or worth his place, he is simply not good enough. Hyam has had many games this year, if he has been fit he has been in the team, he too has not progressed this year. Goalkeepers x 2, both not good enough. Chambers, a lovely bloke and an excellent footballer but not a natural right back and that is what we need. Apart from McGoldrick, Cresswell, Smith, Berra, Chambers and possibly Murphy the rest of the team are not good enough to take us where we want to go. We have 3 very good centre halves but can only play 2 of them. Yes we beat lowly Yovil on Tuesday, they are nearly bottom of the league and we got lucky, we certainly didn't outplay them and they hit the post. Boring, boring football at Portman Road, 16,000 for a play off spot in the championship. I had 2 spare tickets and couldn't give them away. Rubbish football and rubbish tactics. I can't wait for the season to finish.
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gippeswyk added 20:32 - Mar 15
I thought MM put out a good team and made the right subs. Against in form Wigan, he had couldn't throw caution to the wind and gave williams an attacking midfield role behind murphy and he worked his socks off and showed real quality. The midfield did better than they have for a long time and held their own against a club unbeaten in 6 and full of premiership players. We had more possession, more shots and the same number of shots on target. We lacked quality and confidence in front of goal. On another day and with a bit of luck we could have got a point or more out of the game today. I didnt think wigan were head and shoulders better than us, they were just a team brimming with confidence who took their chances and rode their luck better than us. MM lives and breathes the club, trains with them every day, knows who is 100% fit etc, so we have to support him in his job and recognise he saved us from division 1 last season and has put us up there in the play-off hunt, something few would have expected at the start of the season. Its never enjoyable to watch town lose, or to see them defend badly but they worked hard today and for much of the game were more than a match for wigan. No shame in losing to them. MM and the team need our support.
5

StochesStotasBlewe added 20:33 - Mar 15
Wigan were better than us all over the pitch, they were half a yard quicker, 3 quality goals, had pace & width in abundance, they also got stuck I when needed & matched our effort. They also in Uwe Rosler appear to have an astute manager. Poor Murphy alone up front had a thankless task. Once again a team with quality shows the gulf in class we will have to make up but it wont be with this current crop of players. Well done Wigan, hope you make it back to the premier league.
10

Cloddyseedbed added 20:35 - Mar 15
nunny97. Yes we're all waiting for Evans to say yet again money will be available for the right players and to boost the squad for next season. This was said last year and look what happened. I wish Evans would tell the truth and say little or no money is available for next season so expect more of the same. Keep coming and paying the inflated prices to watch the cr*p that we serve up week in and week out because we need as much money as we can get from you!
4

groovyASH added 20:45 - Mar 15
BlueMachine

Today was the first time I thought Mick got it wrong, with what he had available, is perhaps what I should have said!
0

TimmyH added 20:47 - Mar 15
@masetheace - how do you explain MM getting us out of the relegation zone up to 14th (in his tenure last season we would have been 6th place if the season had started on Nov 1st, YES 6TH PLACE!) in six months, and that's taking over from the 'shambles' PJ left behind (not my word). So that's a bit of a reality check, maybe it was the carrot dangling - maybe we should of had another one this year to get into the play-offs?
So basically what you have said is totally incorrect.
-1

jas1972 added 20:56 - Mar 15
Very straightforward - tried hard, beaten by a better team and why are we surprised? Wigan have come down with a squad full of Premiership players, have the comfort of parachute payments and after the early season wobbles that such sides often seem to get, they have enjoyed a winning run. They have played in Europe this season, are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and are the current Cup holders. Yes, ten years ago we were challenging them for Premiership status - and we couldn't beat them then, so nothing's changed.
Against that, our boys tried hard, but a number of them lack the level of competence required to get promoted (let alone to stay up). That's not a crime, it just happens to most teams in any division, in any season.
I was disappointed in Hyam today. He still plays too much of the game headed in the wrong direction; but we were making this sort of criticism of Tommy Smith two years ago and look how well he has come on; so perhaps Hyam will do the same. On the evidence of today's game I can see only too well why Taylor doesn't play more; despite the skill that is in there he rarely competed for the ball and Wigan's third goal was entirely down to his lack of desire for the ball in Wigan's half, leaving it to Green to "lose" a ball that should never have been his in the first place, with most of the team pushed up in search of an equaliser.
But this season, for the first time for many years, we aren't mentioning relegation and it is March. That's a plus.
5

billlm added 20:56 - Mar 15
hyam out please home grown or not at this level out of his depth
3

BlueMachines added 21:19 - Mar 15
Can we forget this notion of Wigan having 'premiership' players. They are Championship players. If they were full of Premiership quality they wouldn't have been relegated. Having said that, their players had more drive and quality than ours. Just not premiership quality.
3

warktheline added 21:25 - Mar 15
Timmy, I've noticed you keep using my quote 'shambles' in reference to PJ era. What are your views on this period?
0

Cakeman added 21:40 - Mar 15
I thought the lads tried really hard but in the end were beaten by a slightly better team.
Effort alone cannot always win matches, it needs to be matched with some good quality.
Sadly I believe that Town just about played to the best of their ability but it was not good enough on the day to beat a good Wigan.
Mick has done remarkably well with the very small funding purse he was given but quality tells.
In other words, he cannot make silk purses out of sows ears.
PS I thought Murphy was excellent and ran his heart out for the cause with very limited service and help.
9

JWM added 21:47 - Mar 15
Warktheline you may need to wait a while for Timmy's reply as he needs to work out the stats on his spreadsheets first!
2

TimmyH added 21:48 - Mar 15
Hi warktheline - purely reference to the team/squad Mick took over from, I've always believed PJ and his management team were a shambles and some of the players he got in but come 2012/13 season some of the 'driftwood' was starting to be let go - Bowyer, Chopra (people knew what a d+*k he was), Bullard etc - but the bones of a reasonable team were there. Tactically dreadful. Just remember you saying it.
1

TimmyH added 21:50 - Mar 15
hahaha....nice one JWM, probably true but you can't argue with statistics...hang on, you can!
2

marco007 added 22:05 - Mar 15
8 wins and and an away crowd of 381???????
Stick to rugby league :)
1

JWM added 22:05 - Mar 15
As much as I enjoy the banter on here I really do think that we should cut Mick some slack! Look at how much time Magilton, Keane and Jewell were given before the supporters turned on them! This is Mick's first full season and we are in comfortable mid table. Not bad for a team that has been put together on peanuts. I know the football could be more entertaining but until we spend some money this will always be the case! Believe it or not but we are in a much better place than we were this time last year, progress is being made!
4

BlueBhoy added 22:19 - Mar 15
Have to agree with snider 94 on his post. We aren't a great side. We are a championship side of eleven years. We won't play beautiful or all out attacking football . We need points. Mick has done an amazing job with no backing or money to spend. If he wasn't here we would be in division one still slagging the team off. The lads and mick have had little over twelve months together. What the hell do you expect. Let's get behind the lads who are playing there hearts out for us. We are never gonna be a Sir Bobby Robby style type of team again unless some rich Arab buys us. So let's get behind the team for a while and give them a fair crack of the whip. The Cobbolds once had to apologise to Bobby Robson for our are fans booing his side when he first started. We are a club , not a team. We have limited resources and that is not down to mick and the players. We need to cheer them on and not piss on them. Let's stop the modern day compulsion to call for a managers head after 12 mths. Please.
6

Cloddyseedbed added 22:22 - Mar 15
JWM. Team put together on peanuts you say, I agree. Football could be more entertaining you say, I agree. Until we spend some money football will not be more entertaining, I agree. Money will not be spent on bringing better quality players here because the owner has decided to cut costs and lower the budget for playing staff. It is not going to change. The salesmanship to sell season tickets will soon start and money will be made available to the manager to bring the right players in to strengthen the squad this we have all heard before. But our hopes are always let down, that is why the crowds are going down, poor football, poor players.
2

warktheline added 22:46 - Mar 15
Fair enough Timmy, I must say PJ man management skills were pitiful. It really winds me up to see him on sky sports, looking totally carefree. The combination of him and RK, has knocked our club back years. Sky have a lot to answer for, their input of money has ripped the traditional structure of British football to pieces. The gap between top and bottom is unbridgeable. JWM....well done for keeping your sense of humour tonight. I'm struggling to smile this evening. Strange how one game can put you on such a downer.
7

LordMamu added 22:50 - Mar 15
I drove the 135 miles to the game and I've driven them back and I'm wondering why on earth I do it and whether to renew my season tickets - I would really really like the northern stereotype or Mr Invisible to explain to me why I should - really I do - just give me a reason because playing one up top and "wingers" with no pace who refuse to cross it makes me wonder why. Hyam and Green were just liabilities in blue and white....
5

Taricco_Fan added 23:07 - Mar 15
It's difficult to criticise the players when they clearly work hard. McCarthy has assembled a team of grafters but the lack of technical ability, vision and creativity is painfully apparent.

High on effort, low on quality.
7

RegencyBlue added 23:07 - Mar 15
How this club progresses is down to one man, and it's not MM!

Step forward Marcus Evans. Unless he can get money into the playing budget neither MM or any other manager is going to get us promoted using free transfers and out of contract players.

Season tickets for the coming season are going to be a hard sell without some sign Evans has a plan. At the moment it just seems to be using FFP as a smokescreen to cover the lack of any investment in the squad.
5

superjim66 added 23:11 - Mar 15
Hyam MOM, what planet are you on. He was awful on Tuesday and even worse today! He maybe one of our own but they can't keep carrying him like they have been!
5


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