Wigan off the mark at home

Wigan won at home in the Premier
League for the first time this season
with a 2-1 victory over West Ham.
Ivan Ramis volleyed the hosts into an
eighth-minute lead and James
McArthur profited from a loose ball
two minutes after the break to earn the
Latics a first win since their 4-1 League
Cup rout of the same opponents a
month ago.
Sam Allardyce's side had made their
best start for 13 years but with their
muscular approach all-too predictable,
the win that would have propelled
them fourth never looked likely.
It was typical, Allardyce will no doubt
muse, that Ramis - a man he tried to
sign in the summer - did the early
damage but his own side's cutting
edge was in scant supply and James
Tomkins' late header was a mere
consolation.
Wigan had set the early tempo, Arouna
Kone a common denominator in West
Ham worries but the breakthrough
came from an unlikelier source and so
sweetly did Ramis meet Jean
Beausejour's corner, there were surely
gasps amid the cheers.
The defender might have undone his
fine work with a blatant check on
Mohamed Diame in a dangerous area
but Mark Noble curled harmlessly
against the wall.
An Andy Carroll flick gave ex-Newcastle
team-mate Kevin Nolan a sniff, while
another knockdown afforded James
Collins an effort on goal, scuffed
though it was.
But the visitors' best chance to restore
parity came from the left flank, Matt
Jarvis's inswinging cross only narrowly
evading the right boot of Yossi
Benayoun (32).
Wigan had ample further chances of
their own, Beausejour and James
McCarthy denied from range, but
breathing space came and was timely,
McArthur drilling home Shaun
Maloney's lay-off two minutes after the
restart.
Allardyce called for the fresh legs of
Modibo Maiga but the striker's first
touch was a shot dragged horribly
wide and when a deep cross dropped
into Carroll's path soon after, the big
forward swiped at air.
Carlton Cole and Gary O'Neil entered
the fray as Allardyce tinkered again in
search of late reward but Nolan saw
his shot blocked, Cole his header loop
high and shoulders sagged.
Gary Caldwell stood firm in the home
rearguard as West Ham got desperate
but a late Tomkins volley came back off
the bar, rendering his looping header
seconds later (90+3) a footnote.