Latics gave their season a massive boost with this win over Birmingham, it was nothing more than we deserved as we passed through our visitors for nearly all but the first 20 minutes of the game.
The early offside goal by Liam Ridgewell after 6 minutes knocked our game plan to pieces and we struggled until Tom Cleverley equalised on 25 minutes.
Though Birmingham saw a bit more of the ball in this period, their only other chance came from a Larsson free kick which rattled the crossbar, all the rest of the play was wrapped up in the midfield area without any chances of note.
What got us back into the game and back on top was a perfect pass from Ben Watson to Emmerson Boyce whose cross was met by Tom Cleverley on the six yard line to blast home the equaliser. We never looked back after this and took the game right to the Blues.
More often than not our attacks fizzled out to nothing for the remainder of the half, mostly due to Ben Watson’s very wayward crossing and atrocious dead ball deliveries. The midfielder was though challenging for the man of the match award with his performance in the middle of the park.
He was always the first to be asking for the ball and he tried everything in the book to open up the Birmingham midfield, hence how we got our equaliser. Charles N’Zogbia capped a very quiet half off by coming the closest to putting us 2-1 up before the break.
The Frenchman’s jinking run forced a great save from the advancing Ben Foster in the Blues goal and the break came a little early as Latics looked like they were going to make their possession count.
The second half saw us take over completely and it was only a matter of time before that deciding goal came. We did however manage to survive a penalty decision as Alcaraz looked to have body checked the Birmingham forward.
We were due that bit of luck after the offside goal in the first half, who say sit doen’t even out hey? Latics went close on numerous occasions with Figueroa and Boyce getting forward a lot it was causing all sorts of problems.
Another N’Zogbia dribbling master class was thwarted by a last ditch slide from Ridgewell, whilst the winger forced Foster into a couple of saves from distance. Figueroa went really close with a shot that the Brum stopper just managed to parry around the post.
Had Ben Watson’s delivery been better who knows what damage we could have done from corners and free kicks, but it was to be a screamer of a shot from Maynor Figueroa that would eventually seal the victory.
The left back advanced down the wing and after leaving two defenders in his wake unleashed a shot from 30 yards that totally deceived Foster and sent the DW Stadium into delirium.
It was no more than we deserved, in fact it is flattering to Birmingham that it was only 2-1, it could have been a lot more damaging.
|