By Alan G
March 19 2006

Wigan Athletic did their bid for a UEFA cup spot the power of good with a slim 1-0 victory over Lancashire rivals Manchester City at Eastlands.

Stuart Pearce made eight changes to the team that beat Aston Villa in the fifth round of the FA cup on Tuesday and it showed, as Gary Lineker (!) once said: “You’ve got to be great to rotate”.

 

Latics however were unchanged, and started to pressurise the City defence early on, creating the first clear chance on 13 minutes when Sylvain Distin failed to deal with a spinning ball and Henri Camara ran on before blasting his shot over the bar.

 

City almost took the lead when John Filan threw the ball against Sylvain Distain’s head and it ricocheted onto the bar. However, referee Martin Atkinson inexplicably gave a free kick to Latics (for hand-ball) for this incident.

 

Gary Teale wasted a good chance after a mix-up between David James and Distain, blasting his shot straight at the keeper.

 

Latics took the lead in the second half when City keeper James spooned a backpass 30 feet into the air and then immediately spooned the resulting backpass out for a corner. Jimmy Bullard crossed in the resultant corner for Lee McCulloch to head powerfully home in front of a delighted Latics throng.

 

A Ben Thatcher backpass put James in trouble again, but he managed to clear the ball to safety with Jason Roberts closing in fast.

 

City only managed a single shot of note in the entire ninety minutes, Stephen Ireland sending Trevor Sinclair through late on, but his weak shot failed to cause Filan too much trouble.

 

Latics should have doubled their lead in the dying seconds, but Jason Roberts contrived to shoot straight at James after a slip by David Sommeil.

 

Paul Jewell:
"I think City had one eye on the FA Cup. But you should not take anything away from our win, we were the best side throughout.

"We restricted them to not many attempts on goal and it was a decent team performance.

"But we had some really good situations and we have to make them count. We are always trying to be better."

Man City: James, Danny Mills, Sommeil, Distin, Thatcher, Sinclair, Reyna (Croft 66), Ireland, Jihai, Sibierski (Samaras 27), Wright-Phillips, Samaras (Miller 61).
Subs Not Used: Weaver, Richards.

Booked: Wright-Phillips, Danny Mills.

Wigan: Filan, Chimbonda, De Zeeuw, Scharner, Baines, Teale, Kavanagh, Bullard, McCulloch, Camara (Johansson 85), Roberts.
Subs Not Used: Walsh, Jackson, Mahon, Ziegler.

Goals: McCulloch 55.

Att: 42,444

Ref: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire).