Football Dissected

It seems as if Roy Keane has a bit of work to do with regards to his team’s defence. Five penalty claims arose from the game, all of which came from the cries of Wigan players, but only two were given. The first three, the ones not given, were a mix. The first from Heskey who claimed he was tugged was a pretty good claim, but it wasn’t given. The second from Koumas was yet another good claim for a penalty, the Sunderland defender coming in from behind to take away the player’s legs. But that wasn’t given either. And the third penalty that wasn’t given was again from Heskey, although it was a doubtful one especially since it was unlikely he was going to get to the ball before the keeper did.
Wigan took the lead when Heskey knocked home Luis Antonio Valencia's right-wing cross from six yards on the 20th minute.

Penalty claims aside, Wigan should have gone two nil up with the goal from Heskey that was disallowed for offside, although replays suggests the ball took a slight deflection before arriving to Heskey. Heskey was again proving a challenge for the Sunderland defence when his header was saved at point blank from Craig Gordon. Sunderland also came close to opening the scoring in the first half. Michael Chopra free-kick was excellently saved by Chris Kirkland and Kirkland was to the rescue for Wigan for a second time when he saved a powerful drive from Michael Chopra after he was played in with a brilliant pass from Sunderland's £5 million summer signing Kerion Richardson.

But Wigan’s luck changed in the second half. Down to ten men temporarily due to the injury to centre back Paul McShane, Sunderland practically handed Wigan a penalty when Sibierski was handled inside the box. Up stepped Landzaat to put Wigan 2-0 up. And then came another display of rash, reckless defending to give away a penalty when Heskey was fouled. Up stepped Sibierski to fire Wigan into a 3 goal lead.

Sunderland defending was like something out of the Conference. It was careless. And even though it was 50/50 in terms of possession, Wigan, especially Sibierski and Heskey, proved to be too difficult for Sunderland’s back four.