Everton Reaction: Rodallega lets the side down

The game itself was another example of all the reason why the Latics can beat the drop.

Martinez's side were dominant in possession and made a very organised Everton team look like lost schoolboys at times. The football was flowing and pleasing on the eye, but more importantly, there was the end product.

Chances were being created and Tim Howard in the Everton goal was in inspired form to keep the Latics at bay.

It took just over twenty minutes for Charles N'Zogbia to break the deadlock with a lovely finish from inside the area after drawing Tim Howard off his line.

The goal was created after a perfect chip for McCarthy to put the Frenchman in on goal.

However back up the other end and Charles N'Zogbia was guilty of his own defence error as his tripped Leon Osman to gift Everton a penalty and the chance to equalise.

Mikael Arteta stepped up to take the kick and it was a wonderful save by Ali Al-Habsi who added another naught to his value as he saved, full stretch, to his left hand side.

It was surely the turning point of the game, from here the Latics would go on and get a second, closing the game out. It wasn't to be.

Despite the majority of possession and the bulk of the chances, Hugo Rodallega buckled under the pressure.

Everton were laying seige to the Wigan goal via set pieces and corners and the Columbian international chose to handle the ball rather than head it away, gifting the Toffees their second penalty.

Former Latic Leighton Baines stepped up and finished emphatically from the spot, blasting the ball right into the top corner. Credit to Leighton as celebrations were somewhat muted.

The question though must be asked of Rodallega, why? The situtation seemed easier to head the ball than try to use a hand.

With Charles N'Zogbia, he was undone by a cute bit of skill from Osman. With Rodallega is was a foolish error to even put your hand up.

With Charles N'Zogbia, he had fired in the opener and was dictating play. With Hugo Rodallega he was prancing around up top, not giving Distin and Jagielka a worry, and missing chances.

The frustrating thing for supporters is that Hugo Rodallega is a better player than this. He needs to look in the mirror and ask himself if he is going to give everything he has to the survival race, ior if he is going to continue to buckle and shy away as the handball illustrates perfectly.

Charles N'Zogbia was forced to leave the field early in the second half after sustaining what appeared to be a dead leg. Victor Moses replaced him.

It was illustrative of Rodallega's failings that a nineteen year old substitute was able to step into the shoes of N'Zogbia, a become the focal point of the attack, as opposed to our talismanic striker (I use the term loosely).

Moses was guilty of missing two good chances, although these were superb saves from Howard, before Rodallega also missed two chances at the death.

Three points here today would have lifted the Latics back out the bottom three and the club would be bouncing. Instead we are all left to rue what might have been as against a foolish mistake ahs cost the club points.

This may be a harsh assessment of things, but with my club fighting hard to survive, ten players giving absolutely everything for the cause and deserving to win the game, I cannot help but be annoyed with such petulance from our so called record goal scorer.

We travel to Aston Villa next week, the scene of Rodallega's wonder goal on the opening day of last season. Whilst that seems a long time ago (even Koumas was in the starting line up), more of the same is needed from the Columbian, if he is starting of course.

The big positive from the day continues to be the general play fo the team. There is plenty of fight on display and the team are playing some great football.

Of the teams at the bottom of the table we are the best team and we have the ability to get out of this mess.

If we can cut out the stupid errors that have plauged our season we can rise away from the relegation zone, starting with a win at Villa Park next week.

Here is the reaction of the two managers.

Roberto Martinez

It was tough losing Charles and Momo (Diame) during the game but we responded well.

The players who came off the bench showed great concentration and highlighted the strength we have in our squad - a positive sign going into the final three games.

Charles suffered a dead-leg and although he tried to continue playing he couldn't. Momo had to come off straight away and they'll both be assessed over the next 24 hours to discover the extent of their injuries - hopefully their reaction will see them return to action quickly.

The performances at this stage have been very energetic at a very demanding time. It's therefore important that everyone is ready to play a part, especially the substitutes who gave us a real impact today.

Victor (Moses) was very bright when he came on, a real handful for any defender, and James (McArthur) and Franco (Di Santo) also helped maintain a high standard during the game:

With the chances we created in the second-half and the manner of our play we deserved that second goal which would have been the icing on the cake.

The first penalty was a sloppy one to concede: (Leon) Osman was very clever and invited the challenge from which we were heavily punished from.

Ali was instrumental in keeping us in the lead, and produced a top-class save when we needed him to. So it was therefore disappointing to concede another avoidable penalty, but apart from those two incidents I thought we defended very well.

It's frustrating to have only taken one point when we deserved three, but we always knew this campaign would be decided on the final day, and that's still very much the case.

Everton are a very good side, full of experience and, at the moment, in a fantastic run of form. But probably we edged it to be the better side.

I felt we played really well, gave away a late penalty that has cost us two points, but produced a performance that showed the level we're capable of reaching.

It's not easy to score goals against Everton, but the move for our opener was a very good one and the finish was one of the highest order. After scoring such an excellent goal during open play we created enough chances in the second-half to secure all three points.

Whenever Everton had the ball and we had to defend we did so very well, limiting them to very few chances and, ultimately, frustrating them. We had to be alert from set-plays knowing all too well how decisive Leighton Baines' deliveries can be.

It was a big disappointment to concede the penalty late on in the manner we did because it was the only way I could see Everton scoring. But from our point-of-view we played with bravery, maturity and we're ready to take that into the next game against Aston Villa.

We couldn't afford to lose today, and this point will allow us to go to Villa Park with a real desire to perform well in search of a win. It is a well-earned point we've won today and now we need to make sure we add to our total of 35 in the final three games.

Steve Round (Everton assistant manager)

We are disappointed, we wanted to get to the 50 point mark and put a marker down to the rest trying to catch us.

Credit to Wigan, they took it to us and if they continue that they have a chance of staying up.

They went all out to win, it was important to us to stay in the game, try and control it and take our chances when they came.

We missed some opportunities, including the penalty, and you think is it going to be one of those days. But credit to the lads they showed great resolve and resilience.

I thought we could go on and win it but credit to Wigan they didn't lie down.

The table

Next game

Next up for the Latics is another very important game in the fight to avoid relegation as Martinez takes his team to Villa Park. With Gerrard Houllier out of action for medical reasons the Latics will be targetting maximum points from this clash.