West Bromwich Albion 2 - Wigan Athletic 3

Summary:

You have to feel a bit sorry for Markus Rosenberg, handed a place in the starting lineup and a chance to show what he could do for only the third time since joining - but in a game that many of the crowd would happily have watched Albion lose if it meant their guests pushing Aston Villa closer towards relegation. Undeterred, the Swede set about his task with enthusiasm, going close to scoring himself before setting up Shane Long for the opening goal just before the half hour mark.

Albion were looking the stronger side, playing with three strikers and bucking their trend of starting slowly and picking up in the second half - but it was Wigan who scored next to equalise when Jean Beausejour crossed for Arouna Kone to head home from close range five minutes before the break.

Albion took the lead again when Gareth McAuley headed home from a Graham Dorrans free kick five minutes after the break, but again Wigan fought back and equalised, this time from a Shaun Maloney cross headed home by James McArthur.

Steve Clarke made a double substitution by replacing Rosenberg and Lukaku with Jerome Thomas and James Morrison, but this didn't help Albion's relatively poor second half performance and Wigan scored the winner when another Maloney cross was stabbed home from close range by Callum McManaman. Isaiah Brown made a cameo appearance for his first team debut with six minutes left but had time to do little other than pick up his debut yellow card for a rather wild lunge.

Albion remain in eighth place, sat in the middle of a nine point gap between Liverpool and Swansea, while Wigan's win was of little consequence to Villa who won at Norwich to hit the magic 40 point level and thirteenth place to make them safe bar a little ball-balancing and hoop jumping. Elsewhere, Wolves set an unenviable record when they became the first club to be relegated from the first tier to the third in successive seasons for a second time.

Didcot Baggie:

It seems like every year I walk up Halfords Lane thinking "ah yes, its Wigan today, that should be 3 points". And then walk back down again disappointed. And so it was again today.

The plus points: we started off positive and seem to have unearthed an exciting new talent in Rosenberg. To be serious he had by far his best game in an Albion shirt and showed real pace and touch. What took so long for that to happen?

Negatives: Jonas looked off the pace, gave away the ball and it could be argued that he was at fault for at least 2 goals. Yakob looks a shadow of his former self. Steve Clarke surprised everybody by taking off Rosenberg and Lukaku for Thomas who did nothing and Morrison. His tactics continue to baffle. Odemwinge took abuse from the crowd when warming up and SC chose instead to bring on Isaiah Brown for a debut. The kid did OK.

How come our best season feels so anticlimactic? And who is not worrying about next season? We punched above our weight in the autumn, can we do it again? I predict a Sunderland-like season for us next year unless we shake things up.

Paul Gainham:

For months we have been starting poorly then getting better in the 2nd half when often it's too late, then we manage to play well pretty much for the whole 90 mins at Southampton and finally today we started off OK and then deteriorated in the second half. I despair, I really do.

Too many players late on just switched off - conceding 3 goals at home against a team that has been (rightly) in the bottom 3 all season says it all - we could not raise the work ethic alas and yet again, despite Clarke's BS about striving to finish as high as we can, he simply cannot get that through to the players and our promising season continues to peter out.

The strangest thing today was the substitution of both Lukaku and Rosenberg at the same time.

Get ready for this, here it comes.....Rosenberg had a pretty good game today from the start, he was engaged, occasionally showed some good touches and awareness and set up Longs goal with a great cross field ball. Lukaku was also playing pretty well.

Now answer me this, with Wigan needing a win, particularly when they heard Villa were winning, and thus beginning to push forward, why oh why do you take off 2 forward players who were playing well and were not injured or knackered and then sit back, effectively allowing Wigan to push forward?????

Utter garbage of a decision that IMO led to our defeat. If they had stayed on, we would have caught Wigan out who are poor and slow at the back.

Just another reason I hope Clarke is not at the helm next year..........

jen:

Interesting that there are more comments about Odemwingie than todays game! Yet another 3 points thrown away by poor substitutions by a manager who in his own words tried hard to get a point. Gosh, the ambition of the man. Rosenberg had by far his best game so why was he taken off? Why was Lukaku - yes he has played better but was still dangerous in bursts. Thought Jonas was awful again, Foster was looking at the incident with the Billy Jones foul instead of watching the ball for their first goal, plus I thought both Mulumbo & Yacob were not at their best. Once again needless yellow cards for awful lunging tackles when there was no danger - Ridgewell in particular. Will we get another point this season? - very debatable on this showing.

Bobby Hope:

Well yes Rosenberg had his best game by miles - not difficult was it? Jonas was off the pace and Yacob and Mulumbu didn't play to the best of their abilities. Dorrans continues to get better and better every game he plays, MOM in my opinion.

But Baggie fans never cease to amaze me. I spoke with fans before and after the game and they all slagged SC off for being too cautious especially at home. He then puts out the most attacking side this season and we could have been 4 up at half time. Bad defensive errors for all their goals but seriously please don't have a go at SC or the players about not wanting to win. Wigan (god bless 'em) knew they were very lucky to win today.

Would you all have settled for 8th and record points at the start of the season? I think we all know the answer to that and if the honest answer is 'No' then you are deluded.

Well done lads and long (no pun intended) live Steve Clarke.

Glos.Baggie:

Started off well with the same attacking formation from the previous week. Have to agree with vast majority of comments (apart from Bobby Hope who seems to condone SC's strange decisions) that we lost to a very poor Wigan side who have been in the bottom 3 all season. We had the upper hand before taking off the two strikers, thereafter, we lost our shape. Admitted, Wigan were scrapping for their lives and it could be deemed as their second cup final. Olsson has been gradually getting worse and is not 100 per cent focussed. Replace him with Craig Dawson just to give him a wake up call that his place isn't guaranteed week in, week out. Jones and Dorrans improving as each game goes by. MOTD summed it up, Wigan were very poor and their defence inept, yet they still won. Wake up Clarke and take note. Odemwinger needs to go now, no place for him at WBA.

Lamp Baggie:

3 questions

• Why was McCauley MOM? excellent goal yes but given run around by Kone
• Double substitution? unbelievable SC at times you can't make it up
• Odem - why hasn't this mess been sorted? 'one greedy bastard' sing the Smethick to be fair there was more than one on the pitch yesterday as no doubt will we see in the summer but who can blame them they are professionals doing a job no matter what romantic notion we may have

Overall pretty average performance in a game for the taking only in the last 10 minutes did we up the pace & play with any real purpose although prior to the subs we always looked a threat & at times looked well in control but let down by shoddy defending

It's only taken 30 plus games but Rosenberg actually looked like a footballer yesterday fair play to him

We are top of the middle so well done Jeremy & SC we have reached our goal but still feel flat, maybe its just football in general but IMO this is one of the poorest premierships for a long time & next season will be much tougher

Stuart Russell:

How can anyone say this is a very poor Wigan side? They totally outplayed Everton at Goodison in the FA Cup, and had by far the better of the game last week against spurs and came within a minute of getting all three points there too.

As fpr the Baggies, too many players seem to be subconsciously thinking that the season is over - maybe Jacob and Ollsen being the prime examples. On the credit side, Dorrens seems to be coming back towards his best, Jones now looks a real steal, and we may have unearthed a goody in Rosenburg after all.

Davo from Dudley:

I whole heartedly agree with the comments about SC and his poor substitutions. It's been happening for a while, but like most of us Baggies, either we haven't woken up to smell the coffee yet, or, we've given SC the benefit of the doubt.

Next season will be the acid test. He'll be scrutinised and accountable for his actions, whereas this season he has followed "Woy." and lived off his merits. Undoubtedly a good coach, but can he now "Walk the Walk" as the saying goes. Time will tell.

It didn't help on Saturday with the likes of Olsson, Morrison, Ridgewell and to a lesser degree Yacob all with their flip flops on ready for their summer holidays. (I fear for tonights result with the amount of players we have already on the plane)