Walsall 2 Wigan Athletic 0 - Saturday 25th October 2003

Latics lose pace after rare defeat at the Bescot

Report by John Patrick Heeley

Wigan's unbeaten run came to a grinding halt at Walsall's Bescot Stadium thanks to a second half performance from the West Midlands side that made Latics look less than ordinary.

The result also saw Wigan relinquish their place at the top of Division One with West Brom now owning that privilage after a resounding 3-0 victory at Rotherham.

Paul Jewell's side pretty much had the better of the opening period but despite dominating they failed to turn their chances into goals and were made to pay for that when Walsall took the lead 5 minutes after the break and never looked back from then on.

After the game the Wigan manager revealed that he needed to recruit 2 or 3 fresh faces with his side currently looking jaded and that he had a couple of deals that he was looking into.

Saddlers defender Ian Roper was called into action early on when he cleared a dangerous looking ball into the area with Geoff Horsfield and Andy Liddell bearing down on goal and then Horsfield went close for Wigan with only 5 minutes on the clock but his close range effort fell wide of the post.

Midfielder Simon Osborn, a summer signing from Gillingham, then twice tested John Filan's goal with the first effort flying straight at the Wigan keeper while the second, from distance, whistled wide of the post but not before Nathan Ellington had shot wide and a minute later Jimmy Bullard saw his long range attempt easily collected by Walsall keeper James Walker.

Walsall believed they had valid grounds for a penalty in the 35th minute when a Gary O'Neil cross appeared to have been handled in the area by Steve McMillan after Paul Merson had been instrumental in the charge forward to set up the on loan Portsmouth midfielder but referee Iain Williamson waved away the appeals.

Moments later Walker made a decent save to deny Horsfield after the former Birmingham City striker picked up the loose ball from Lee McCulloch's blocked effort.

Wigan had a chance to open the scoring shortly after the restart with a Lee McCulloch header landing narrowly wide of the target but a few minutes later it was the home side that broke the deadlock.

The move that led to the goal began with O'Neil and Wrack who combined to send Merson on his way before the former Arsenal and England man delivered a defence splitting ball to DARREN WRACK who coolly fired home his first league goal since the end of December.

Gary Birch had a goal disallowed minutes later with a late flag for offside but the second goal wasn't long in coming when Chris Baird sent a low ball to the far post where DARREN WRACK smashed home for his and his side's second goal of the game.

Wigan appeared to have had the stuffing knock out of them and had to take a backseat as Colin Lee's side passed the ball around the park barely affording their opponents any time on the ball.

Paul Jewell made three substitions in a bid to shake things up with the tiring Geoff Horsfield and Nathan Ellington replaced between the two goals by Neil Roberts and Gary Teale respectively and later in the game Tony Dinning made way for Jason Jarrett but it was all in vain as Wigan slipped to only their second defeat of the season and only their 6th in their previous 66 games.