Match Review 2011 - 2012

After a 6 year wait Norwich City are back in the big time. An away trip to the  DW Stadium,home of Wigan, awaited Paul Lamberts team. When the fixture came out i bet both mangers would have been happy with the first fixture of the season with both thinking  there's a chance of 3 points, Norwich started with a familiar back 5 with only De Laet making his canary debut. The tried and tested diamond midfield with Fox at the bottom and Hoolahan at the top, Croft's on the right and Surman on the left, Norwich talisman Grant Holt was upfront with new 3 million signing Morison making his Premier League debut. Wigan played a 4 5 1/4 3 3 formation with Di Santo the loan striker,Victor Moses had licence to push up but started on the left.

Fox was booked after 20 or so seconds for a wreckless challenge which left the Wigan player in a crumpled heap,both teams looked comfortable on the ball and settled well, on 14 minutes Wes had a great chance to slip in either Holt or Morison after he broke through the middle of the pitch, but he took too long to make his mind up and Watson got back and tackled him. On 15 minutes Wigan's full back Boyce did well down the right and cut inside but his shot blocked by Whitbread,young Moses looked very lively early on and looked a danger whenever he was near the ball. After 17 minutes Norwich had their first real chance of the game, Morison skipped past his marker well on the right and laid a great ball across the box probably 15 yards out, Wes arriving perfectly got his right footed shot all wrong and it didn't trouble Al Habsi at all. Within 3 minutes of Wes's chance Norwich were 1 nil down, De Laet dallied on the ball on the half way line, Di Santo robbed him and made his way to goal on the right hand side, De Laet,who's a quick lad, tried to make amends for his mistake and caught Di Santo when he was entering the box, Di Santo was looking for the penalty but i thought the ref got it right, Watson stepped up and smashed the penalty in, Ruddy went to the right but the shot was too powerful. In a near carbon copy of the first goal Zak was robbed by Diame on the half way line but instead of running towards  goal he tried a ridiculous shot from nearly 50 yards away,Di Santo,who was in support,wasn't best pleased. Moses,who was looking Wigans best attacking option,had a good shot saved by Ruddy. Norwich were still playing ok without really creating  anything clear cut. On 37 minutes Holt was nearly on the score sheet but he just couldn't get on the end of Fox's free kick with the ball going agonisingly wide. The Norwich equaliser came just as 45 minutes had been played, Morison did well down the right, his cross took a slight deflection and Al Habsi made a right mess of his catch,the ball squirmed away from him and Wes Hoolahan,in the right place at the right time,smashed it into the net before the keeper could recover. In injury time Di Santo should have done better with his header but Whitbread did just enough to put him off with the ball going just over.

Overall entertaining first half with both teams doing well in possession,Wigan and particularly Moses were very dangerous and probably just shaded the first half.

Norwich started the second half brightly and a very good move resulted in Surman having a clear chance to get his shot on target but his poor effort hit Holt who was in an offside position. Di Santo had a great header just wide on the 49th minute with Ruddy looking beaten,1 minute later another neat move by Norwich ended with Croft's hitting his shot over. Wigan's man of the match was unlucky not to score after a superb run taking on 3 or 4 Norwich players,Rodallega's first effort after coming on as a sub was well saved by Ruddy. On 61 minutes mix up between Lopez and Al Habsi gave Norwich a free kick inside the Wigan area but Surmans free kick was just over and didn't test the keeper. Wigans left back Fiegueroa was starting to get more involved and was pushing on more, his excellent run and cross found sub Sammon unmarked 8 yards out and he should have done better with his header. In the 78th minute Holts only real chance of the game came, great work wide by Norwich sub Bennett resulted in an inch perfect cross that Holty kind of got under and his header just went over, a player of Holty's aerial ability will be disappointed he didn't hit the target. On the 84th minute Wigan were unlucky not to win it, Watson's brilliant curler with the outside of his right foot struck the outside of Ruddys post. Wigan were putting on the pressure with 5 minutes to go and only 2 blocks from De Laet stopped them from scoring.

Overall a fair result with both teams having chances to win it, Wigan will probably be more disappointed with a point being they were the home team,they created the better chances.

Wigan Athletic (4-5-1): Al Habsi, Boyce, Caldwell, Lopez (Stam, 82), Fiegueroa, Watson, Diame, McCarthy, Gomez (Rodallega, 53), Moses, Di Santo (Sammon, 53). Subs not used: Pollitt, Thomas, McArthur, Jones.

Norwich City: (4-4-2): Ruddy, R Martin, De Laet, Whitbread (Barnett, 71), Tierney, Fox, Crofts, Surman (Bennett, 75), Hoolahan, Morison (Pilkington, 75), Holt. Subs not used: Rudd, Jackson, Johnson, Naughton.

Referee: Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire)

Attendace: 17,454

Score 1-1

We kept the ball well at times and had good spells in the game.

Morison was a real handful all game not giving the Wigan defenders a minute all afternoon,he also created a couple of good chances for his team mates.

Thought Crofts had a good game,he missed a few pre season matches but it didn't show, his work rate was class all afternoon.

Every away point in the Premier League is a good one.

A couple of defensive mistakes nearly cost us 3 points,with the level of opposition we will be facing week in week out we can't afford to give them a helping hand.

Victor Moses gave us the run around at times,we struggled to cope with his direct running,most Premier League teams are going to have at least  2 or 3 players of this quality.

Steve Morison

Victor Moses