EFL Championship
at St. Andrew's
Birmingham City (0) 0
Wigan Athletic (0) 1
Nathan Broadbent 82
Attendance: 16,013
Birmingham City:
John Ruddy, Maxime Colin (Jobe Bellingham 86), Dion Sanderson, Auston Trusty, Josh Williams (Jonathan Leko 57), Jordan James, Juninho Bacuna (C), George Hall (Sam Cosgrove 80), Przemyslaw Placheta, Scott Hogan, Lukas Jutkiewicz (Troy Deeney 57).
Unused subs - Neil Etheridge, George Friend, Alfie Chang.
Wigan Athletic:
Jamie Jones, Tendayi Darikwa (C), Jack Whatmough, Jason Kerr, Joe Bennett, Tom Naylor, Max Power, Callum Lang (Nathan Broadhead 69), Will Keane (Charlie Wyke 70), James McClean (Graeme Shinnie 69), Josh Magennis (Ryan Nyambe 16).
Unused subs - Sam Tickle, Thelo Aasgaard, Stephen Humphrys.
Wigan had drawn all three of their Championship games thus far this season, before they arrived at St. Andrew's this afternoon. But they came, they saw and they did a job on Blues... despite having to play for eighty plus minutes with ten men, after Joe Bennett was red-carded for impeding Lukas Jutkiewicz, who he had a clear run on goal, following a well weighted through ball by Juninho Bacuna.
"Bennett was bloody unlucky, there was only the slightest of contact there", texted a Latics supporting friend of mine. For the purposes of clarification, I have reproduced the four operative words of his message in bold font.
Regardless of whether Bennett had bashed 'the Duke' over his head with a shovel or tickled his rib-cage with a feather, it was enough to knock the big man out of his stride and rules are rules and Jutkiewicz made sure that they had been applied properly ;-)
.JPG)
In midweek, Blues had shown that they could raise their game and go head to head with a quality Watford side. Today, they played well enough in parts, but were up against an ultra defensive, well drilled team of spoilers, who were already running the clock down just a few minutes after Bennett's dismissal.
Wigan seemed content to grind out a bore-draw and weren't even slightly embarrassed about how blatantly they were holding the game up, while were getting away with their negative antics and gamesmanship, with complete impunity from the match referee: Andy Davies.
Y'know, pretty much like any Championship side would do away from home, if they got the chance.
The gauntlet had been laid down for John Eustace's side to negotiate the maze that Leam Richardson's game management was constructing before them.
Ryan Nyambe had been introduced from the bench in place of the Northern Ireland striker Josh Magennis, five minutes after Bennett had left the pitch to any apparent gaps as the visitors were happy to let Blues pass the ball to death while sitting deep in numbers. It wasn't pretty to watch, but as Birmingham's goalless score line suggests, it was very effective.
Ultimately, the Latics were set up not to lose the game and in that respect, their game plan must be considered a success, especially when they grabbed what looked to be an unlikely bonus towards the end of the game.
Bacuna went close from the free-kick that Bennett's contact had conceded, but with Blues seemingly in the ascendancy, it was Wigan who created the next chance, when Tom Naylor volleyed a great chance wide from twelve yards out.
The hosts were zipping passes around and moving the ball at a high tempo, but Wigan's goal area was taking on the guise of an impregnable battle camp. They'd circled the wagon's around Jamie Jones' goal... and 'dem injuns weren't getting in to cause any damage, no matter how hard they tried.
Scott Hogan skewed the ball over the bar from a difficult angle, when he might have been better pulling it back across the face of the goal towards Jutkiewicz, but he's had all on to take the shot anyway, having to hook the ball in at full-stretch.
Jones fielded Jutkiewicz's header ten minutes after the restart. Significantly, regardless of how much possession the hosts were enjoying, that was the first goal attempt that either side had managed to get on target.
Max Power then tested John Ruddy at the other end just minutes minutes later... a warning shot across the bows for Blues, that they had better start turning some of their percentages into goals, because completing the most passes and running around relentlessly in circles, have never been used as a way of determining any football match I've ever seen.
Eustace sent Troy Deeney on in an effort to beef up Birmingham's attacking options. But it was Richardson's three substitutes in the seventieth minute that were to have the biggest influence on the outcome of this game.
Jonathan Leko and Sam Cosgrove entered the fray and when the former's wayward cross was half-cleared into the path of the other, Jones did well to keep out the resulting long range strike.
With just eight minutes remaining, two of the aforementioned three Wigan replacements combined for what turned out to be the only goal of the game... when Charlie Wyke, on his return from a long lay off due to health concerns. showed good feet to get an unlikely looking cross away, while under pressure, out on the left, that Nathan Broadbent rattled inside the near post.
"We've only got ten men!", boomed the Wigan fans as they celebrated the fact that their team had finally turned up to make a game of it, after spending the previous eighty minutes sponging up anything and everything that their hosts could throw at them.
Jobe Bellingham came on for the final four minutes and almost salvaged a point for Blues, but Jones had anticipated where his shot from the edge of the box was going and got down behind it... and stayed down as long as he could until the referee eventually told him to get on with the game.
Jones was barracked long and hard for his unsporting behaviour, but if it had been Blues hanging on to such slender lead and Ruddy had done exactly what Jones had, those same fans would've been affording him hero status.
Wigan saw the game out and...in sporting parlance...shit housed a win with against the disadvantage of playing for the majority of the afternoon with a numerical disadvantage.
FT: Birmingham City 0 v Wigan Athletic 1
It's too early in the season to be worrying about league placings just yet, but Wigan's win saw them leapfrog over todays hosts in the table, as Blues slumped to (their by now customary position of) eighteenth. One point out of an available six from back to back home games in quick succession, does that kind of thing to your standing in the grand scheme of things.
Neither of these teams are in action again until next Saturday... and I won't be watching any more football until then either.
The joys of yet another week of effing night shift shifts has thwarted any plans I had made.
So please excuse my absence from anywhere that our paths might otherwise have crossed for the duration.
If you should need me for anything, I'll be in the people's republic of Rotherham next weekend.
