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Henri Camara came on for the second half, substituting the very ineffective Olivier Kapo, and scored within 6 minutes of the kick off. It was his first league goal for Latics in nearly two years and it sank Everton who were marginally worse than Latics in this game.
Everton actually had the first couple of chances; firstly from Osman who couldn’t get on the end of a Cahill cross and Then Saha who pulled out a brilliant save from Chris Kirkland. Latics then took over and got their first chance from a free kick, after Valencia had been brought down on the edge of the area.
Taylor took the dead ball and had Howard scrambling across his goal as the ball narrowly missed it’s target, leaving the very relieved Everton keeper untangling himself from the back of the goal.
Heskey missed the next chance before Brown scuffed his shot high and wide on the half hour mark. Palacios nearly broke the deadlock 5 minutes later but he headed Valencia’s cross just millimetres over the American keeper’s goal.
Howards was to be called on again on the stroke of half time as he saved a Lee Cattermole shot, parrying the ball round the post at full stretch. But what was more amazing was how he kept out the rebound header from Scharner, who met Taylor’s corner perfectly, he really didn’t know much about it, he was just in the right place at the right time.
Half time saw Kapo make way for Henri Camara and he made an immediate impact. Michael Brown flighted an inch perfect ball for Valencia who skinned his man and fed in the perfect cross across the 6 yard line. Camara had timed his run to perfection and slid in to drive the ball home from 5 yards and send the Latics crowd wild.
To be fair we then seemed to dominate possession and the addition of Victor Anichebe couldn’t spark the Toffee’s to life. It was Latics keeping hold of the ball and moments of brilliance from man of the match Lee Cattermole that made sure the points were staying at the JJB.
Cattermole showed his class as his solo run from the half way line saw Tim Howard pull off a world class save, after the Wigan midfielder had cruised past 4 or 5 lunging challenges.
Valencia pulled out another good save from Howard on 70 minutes after hitting a howler just 2 minutes previous. The rest of the half saw both sides being wasteful, but Everton did have the last chance of the game through Tim Cahill.
The Australian was gifted a guilt edged chance on the edge of the area but he could only manage to fire the ball woefully over the bar and Rob Styles shortly after ended the contest.
A fully deserved three points even if it wasn’t a totally convincing performance. We just need to carry it on against West Brom on Saturday.
Report by Jason Taylor
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Olivier Kapo
Henri Camara
Henri Camara
