Wigan 2-2 Stoke
Wigan's start to the season has been a bit weird. In their opening day fixture they were blown away 2-0 by Chelsea who took a very early lead and in their second fixture they beat Southampton 2-0 despite being out played. With 2 for and 2 against maybe it was obvious that there was going to be a 2 in the scoreline here...
The visitors to the DW stadium today were Stoke, who, like Wigan had had a unique start to the season with 2 draws in 2 games. Maybe it should have been obvious from Stoke's form that a draw was the likely outcome here...
The matched started quickly and inside just 5 minutes Wigan had earned a penalty as the ball bounced up and hit Robert Huth's hand. Shaun Maloney had little issue in putting away the spot kick to put the home side in the lead. Before the half however the fortunes had been reversed with Stoke also being given a penalty this time after a handball by Maynor Figueroa after some beautiful work in the penalty are by Peter Crouch. Jonathan Walters had no issues in repeating what Maloney had done at the other end as the sides went in equal with a goal a piece.
Wigan got off to a very quick start to open the second half with Franco Di Santo managing to put the Latics back in the lead inside the first 5 minutes of the second half. As in the first half however Stoke refused to be beaten and Peter Crouch managed to head in an equaliser with 15 minutes left as Stoke leveled at 2-2. Although Stoke did come close from a Charlie Adam free kick no one managed to bag a 3rd as Stoke bagged their 3rd successive draw of the campaign whilst Wigan continued their strange fixation with the #2 .
Wigan will likely be happier with the point from this match despite starting both halves very well thanks in part to seeing Ali Al Habsi again show his class as he saved Wigan a point late on. Although Wigan had their chances through out the game they just didn't seem to fall quite right for their attackers and instead it was their Midfield and defense who had to play out of their skin to secure the point.
Stoke weren't mind blowing but they did create the better chances and perhaps feel slightly aggrieved to have secured their 3rd draw of the season. Peter Crouch looked brilliant at times and was pivotal in both Stoke goals whilst the substitution that saw Charlie Adam brought on really changed the impetus for Stoke who had looked relatively average before then. It would appear that Adam is going to be a starter in Stoke's next league game due to his pull in the middle.
Showing posts with label Franco Di Santo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Franco Di Santo. Show all posts
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Premier League Week 2-Write up Southampton v Wigan
Southampton 0-2 Wigan
Southampton started their season in midweek with a baptism of fire as they took on current Premier League champions Manchester City and lets be honest they surprised everyone putting up not only a good fight but actually took the lead. They looked too build on the good showing against City with a positive result against Wigan, sadly however they failed to get that result.
The Saints started brightly and came close to opening the scoring inside just 14 minutes as an Adam Lallana shot forced Ali Al Habsi to make an excellent save. Sadly however Southampton's bright start came to nothing as Al Habsi put on an excellent performance.
The deadlock was broken early in the second half as Franco Di Santo put the visitors in the lead finishing off an excellent move for the Latics who came into the match following their open game loss to Chelsea. Southampton tried to equalise and dominated much of the match after going behind but the closest they came was the cross bar with a little over 10 minutes remaining. With a little over a minute of normal time left Wigan doubled their lead and secured the points as Arouna Kone took the ball from Jose Fonte around the halfway line and drove past Kelvin Davis at his nearest post.
This isn't the result any Southampton fan would have wanted, especially not after their excellent performance against the reigning Champions. It was an awful way to mark their first home Premier League fixture in 7 years, however Nigel Adkins shouldn't be too dismayed really as Southampton were the better team even if they did lack a finish to the chances they created. In all honesty the least Southampton deserved was a point and they were unlucky not to get it. It's a lesson to the Southampton players that this league is about finishing your chances as you don't get many of them. Sadly however it'll be Jose Fonte's mistake losing the ball to Kone that will likely be the lasting memory of this match.
Wigan may have lost Victor Moses to Chelsea but with Kone and Di Santo they looked solid in attack and put away the chances that they had, something they have learned over the years. Roberto Martinez however will need to be thankful not to his strikers but to the excellent Al Habsi who's early save kept Wigan in the match, in fact it's fair to say that the keeper is one of the stand out Wigan players and is worth a few points every season due to his ability between the posts. Wigan will likely try to add to their squad with the money from the Moses transfer, and they probably do need it, though Martinez will be proud his men bounced back from last weeks loss against Chelsea and the loss of Moses himself.
Southampton started their season in midweek with a baptism of fire as they took on current Premier League champions Manchester City and lets be honest they surprised everyone putting up not only a good fight but actually took the lead. They looked too build on the good showing against City with a positive result against Wigan, sadly however they failed to get that result.
The Saints started brightly and came close to opening the scoring inside just 14 minutes as an Adam Lallana shot forced Ali Al Habsi to make an excellent save. Sadly however Southampton's bright start came to nothing as Al Habsi put on an excellent performance.
The deadlock was broken early in the second half as Franco Di Santo put the visitors in the lead finishing off an excellent move for the Latics who came into the match following their open game loss to Chelsea. Southampton tried to equalise and dominated much of the match after going behind but the closest they came was the cross bar with a little over 10 minutes remaining. With a little over a minute of normal time left Wigan doubled their lead and secured the points as Arouna Kone took the ball from Jose Fonte around the halfway line and drove past Kelvin Davis at his nearest post.
This isn't the result any Southampton fan would have wanted, especially not after their excellent performance against the reigning Champions. It was an awful way to mark their first home Premier League fixture in 7 years, however Nigel Adkins shouldn't be too dismayed really as Southampton were the better team even if they did lack a finish to the chances they created. In all honesty the least Southampton deserved was a point and they were unlucky not to get it. It's a lesson to the Southampton players that this league is about finishing your chances as you don't get many of them. Sadly however it'll be Jose Fonte's mistake losing the ball to Kone that will likely be the lasting memory of this match.
Wigan may have lost Victor Moses to Chelsea but with Kone and Di Santo they looked solid in attack and put away the chances that they had, something they have learned over the years. Roberto Martinez however will need to be thankful not to his strikers but to the excellent Al Habsi who's early save kept Wigan in the match, in fact it's fair to say that the keeper is one of the stand out Wigan players and is worth a few points every season due to his ability between the posts. Wigan will likely try to add to their squad with the money from the Moses transfer, and they probably do need it, though Martinez will be proud his men bounced back from last weeks loss against Chelsea and the loss of Moses himself.
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