2006 - The Review - October & November
Feature by Liam Cooper
Updated Wednesday, 10th January 2007
Part Five of the 2006 Review. Wigan finally clicked with a 4-0 victory over Manchester City, which began a five game unbeaten run. But was it too good to be true?
OctoberWigan travelled to Blackburn next and couldn't have got off to a better start, barely had we taken our seats when Emile Heskey opened the scoring after
 | Emile Heskey had a good October |
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two minutes with a powerful right foot drive.
Wigan couldn't hang on to the lead and lost the game 2-1 with Svetoslav Todorov having a debut to forget by missing a penalty.
With Wigan in such poor form and down to 15
th in the table, the last thing we needed was league leaders Man United at home! But we had! Not the start we expected though as Leighton Baines slammed his free kick in from 25 yards.
Bainsey had recently scored another screamer for the England U21s the week before and was making a habit. Unfortunately Man United turned on the style in the 2
nd half and just outclassed Wigan to win 3-1.
United's neighbours Man City were next up at the JJB and the performance of the season brushed them aside as Wigan strolled to a 4-0 victory with goals from Heskey, Valencia, Camara and a Richard Dunne own goal.
This kicked off a winning streak as Wigan took all 3 points at Craven Cottage thanks to a late winner from Henri Camara.
NovemberWigan's impressive run continued into November as they extended their unbeaten run over local rivals
Bolton Wanderers to 4 games as Wigan won 1-0 at the Reebok, thanks to a goal from super Lee McCulloch.
Wigan's impressive form continued thanks to a 3-2 win over Charlton at the
 | Who put the ball in the Bolton net? |
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JJB Stadium. This sealed the fate of Charlton boss Iain Dowie, who had come under fire after a poor set a week, he was sacked shortly after the match. The winning streak of 4 games lifted Wigan.
The following week saw Latics keeper Mike Pollitt was loaned out to
Ipswich Town for a month to gain some first team action, ‘Polly' returned two weeks later due to an injury to Latics reserve keeper John Filan.
An in form
Aston Villa outfit was next up at the JJB. Villa were lying 3
rd in the table with some fantastic results behind them so we all knew how tough this game would be.
The game was very entertaining with Wigan dominating in parts and Villa dominating in others but it ended in a 0-0 draw, a pretty fair a result on the whole and one I'd have taken before hand.
It was also the first 0-0 Wigan had had in the premiership. Wigan hadn't drawn 0-0 since QPR at home in April 2005 so we were due one! Wigan travelled to Tottenham next and met up with an old friend.
This was the first time Wigan had met Pascal since his transfer earlier in the year. Needless to say, he got a rather frosty reception from the Wigan fans.
Chimbonda added fuel to the fire as he reportedly goaded Wigan fans by making hand gestures to the crowd. Wigan lost the game 3-1 after taking the lead through a speculative effort from Henri Camara.
Check back tomorrow for Gregs review of the month December!
