Wigan Athletic 2 Middlesbrough 2

In the end it was a disappointing result and it puts Latics in serious trouble in the bottom three. But after Sam Morsy had put Wigan ahead with a very well-taken goal after 29 minutes they matched the visitors until two controversial incidents in the second half.

After an hour Joe Gelhardt put Kieffer Moore through for a clear run on goal only to be fouled from behind by Harold Makoudi. It looked like a red card, but referee Oliver Langford gave the Frenchman a yellow. Within a couple of minutes Chey Dunkley received his marching orders on receiving a second yellow card. Lewis Wing went on to score a deflected free kick followed by another from a long shot that seemed to go through David Marshall. Ten man Latics salvaged a point from Makoudi’s own goal from an excellent Nathan Byrne cross.

Not only were Langford’s sending off decisions hugely influential in changing the balance of the game but his judgement in so many other occasions was sadly lacking, doing Wigan Athletic no favours at all.

Refereeing decisions have so often gone against Latics this season. VAR may not be popular in England, but where would Latics now be in the table if it had been operating this season? Are Latics games more difficult than most to referee?

Some interesting statistics on fouls and cards given are available on Footstats.co.uk.

Prior to last night more fouls have been awarded in games involving Wigan Athletic than any other team in the division. Latics committed an average of 13.9 fouls per match, second highest after Sheffield Wednesday with 15.4. However, Wigan had 13.2 fouls committed against them. Wigan lie in mid-table with an average of 7.4 fouls committed per card, around average for the division. The opposition have 8.5 fouls per game for a card. In contrast Brentford average 9.6 cards per foul, their opposition 6.4.

Although the stats do not suggest an obvious bias against Latics, they nevertheless suggest that decisions have not favoured them overall. What factors might have impacted?

Paul Cook’s Wigan are one of the more physical sides in the Championship, with a very different style of play to Brentford, whose foul and card count is so much more favourable. .

Cook is very careful in post-match interviews not to directly criticise the opposition’s tactics or the referee. However, his remonstrations aimed at the fourth official and match referee have become more and more ugly. It was no surprise to see him receive a yellow card last night. Is the manager getting a bad name in refereeing circles for his poor behaviour?

Let’s take a look at how fans reacted to the match through the message boards and social media.

Our thanks go to the Cockney Latic Forum, the Vital Wigan – Latics Speyk Forum and Twitter for providing the media for the posts below to happen. Thanks go to all whose contributions are identified below.

Zeb2 on the Latics Speyk Forum commented:

Ref made 10 (TEN) bookings in the second half and to be fair maybe two or three were warranted …..staggeringly inept.

I didn’t fancy Moore to finish that chance that Gelhardt set him up for, so the bloke that cleaned him out did us a favour, free kick in a great position and them down to ten men…..oh hang on …what the fuck is he doing?…a yellow? Absolute bollocks

5 minutes later WE are down to ten men and are losing the game.
Keeper no chance with the free kick …hit Jacobs in the wall and completely wrong footed Marshall…..second goal looked like a calamity but it was a horrible night with a strong wind swirling about….couldn’t tell from the West stand whether the shot moved a great deal or not ?

Still it shows what can happen when you have a pop from distance instead of trying to walk it in ,,that said…Pilkington should have “walked us home” from 4 yards if he’d committed to Naismith’s great ball across the 6 yard box.

All very frustrating especially with Charlton winning at Forest, which based on the Forest we’ve seen this season especially away, shouldn’t have been that great a surprise given Forest are actually very mediocre along with virtually all of the rest of this ordinary division. The poor quality in the Championship this season will of itself make relegation from it a tad more shameful than usual. I can’t see any of the promotion contenders ‘doing a Sheffield United’ next season.

Laticssince1978 on the Cockney LaticForum said:

The ref knows the rules a clear one on one opportunity is a red card.That decision changed the game and I’m confident we would of gone on to win.

Gosh he got so much wrong tonight he embarrassed himself yes the referee has a lot to take blame for on this instance.

Studs88 on the Latics Speyk Forum commented:

It was a real kick in the guts tonight. For the first time in an age it felt like the team, manager & fans came together. Albeit due to the injustices of the ref.

That said we still made basic errors and didn’t finish the game off. Gelhardt and Pilkington added a lot to our attacking prowess. Even though neither had an outstanding game. I still do feel we need to shake things up further and get Garner on alongside Moore.

Given results elsewhere we could realistically be all but down before the end of the month. That’s a damning indictment on the management team and boardroom. Especially when you consider the dreadful quality up and down this division.

This is it now. No more excuses from Cook about it being a ‘tough division’. We have to pull out results against top teams and relegation rivals. We need to target wins. It’s going to take an average not far off 2pts per game for the rest of the season. Anything less and relegation beckons.

You are my sunshine on the Latics Speyk Forum commented:

I’ve never been as angry at a ref at a home tics game in my life! He was an absolute disgrace and cost us 2 crucial points. Moore was through on goal and their last man fouled him on the edge of the box, it should of been a straight red. Then moments later Dunkley got an extremely soft 2nd yellow,only after the Boro players put pressure on the spineless ref. Unbelievable.In those 2 vital moments the game then turned on it’s head thanks to a lucky deflected goal from the free kick and a Marshall error.

The referee after those 2 horrendous game changing decisions then completely lost the plot for the rest of the game. In the end credit to the players for then battling back and getting a point, but we needed the win tonight, which I feel we would of got if that incompetent p**** had done his job properly. I hope we never see him again.

I was satisfied in how the game was going at that point. Cook had picked a much more attacking line up with 4 attacking players and a back 4.Yes our end product and decision making in the final third let us down several times, but at least the intent of getting into those positions was there.
We were 1-0 up and for all Boro’s decent pass and move and threat from wide areas, they never really threatened our goal and we seemed to have the game under control till the ref ruined it.

The bottom line is we should of been 1-0 up playing against 10 men and I’m confident at that point we go on to win the game.To have about 11 yellows in that game which was nowhere near a dirty game shows what a complete pigs ear the ref made of the game! I’m absolutely disgusted and feel robbed tonight!

 

Walgarthjohn on the Latics Speyk Forum commented:

Refs must be sick of that clown on the touch line calling them every match it’s embarrassing.

 

Donnyspage on the Cockney LaticForum said:

Boro were absolutely dire. We have no cutting edge stemming from attacking midfield. If we had we may not have had to worry about the refs decisions or going a goal down. Basically we huffed and puffed but to not much avail.

Watching Cook remonstrating with the officials was embarrasing. The salary of a surgeon but the attitude and manners of a Liverpool Sunday League pub team coach. He was arguing with everone around him before the controversy started. Agree that their man should have gone for bringing down the last man but Dunks foul was also a second bookable offence which was also punished with the goal.

It’s not looking too good again really.