But there was little doubt that Birmingham deserved their first Premiership win in four games. They were twice in arrears against a struggling Wigan side but hit back to snatch an emotional win with an 81st minute winner from their young Frenchman, Olivier Kapo.
Wigan, who have now lost their last five games, had high hopes of pulling off a shock win but had no answer to the determination of the Birmingham side.
They were given an early boost when on-loan Marcus Bent opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with a solo goal after he picked up a long throughball from skipper Mario Melchiot.
It was Wigan's first goal in 334 minutes play but they were unable to capitalise upon their early success.
Birmingham were back on level terms within three minutes as result of a Kapo penalty.
At this stage Wigan were repeatedly torn apart by the skill of Daniel de Ridder, who made an impressive home debut.
It was the young Dutchman's free-kick, turned away for a corner by Chris Kirkland, which led to the penalty.
De Ridder's corner was headed on by Franck Queudrue only to be handled by Paul Scharner to enable Kapo to slot home his spot-kick with a straight shot as Kirkland dived to his left.
Kirkland excelled keeping Birmingham at bay but there was always a fear that Wigan could spring a surprise which occurred in the 59th minute.
Melchiot advanced down the right and put in a low cross which ended in a mix-up between goalkeeper Maik Taylor and Queudrue.
Queudrue, who gift-wrapped three points to Manchester United in the previous game, blocked the cross but became entangled with Taylor leaving Bent with a simple tap-in.
This goal shocked Birmingham but they launched even more determined attacks with skipper Liam Ridgewell moving up to equalise when he converted a goalwards header from Rafael Schmitz.
Birmingham were now in full flow and they carved out their late win when Medhi Nafti set up Kapo. The Frenchman hit a low 20-yard shot which went through the legs of Andreas Granqvist before going into the net past Kirkland.