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QUE SERA, SERA 20-9-05
I still can't quite decide how I feel about only managing the one point at Wigan on Sunday. Part of me thinks a point away from home is always a good one, especially at a team still riding the crest of the Premiership wave having been promoted. The other part of me thinks two points dropped.
Let's think about this. Wigan, Premiership virgins and the red-hot favourites to be playing Championship football again next August against us, Middlesbrough, European contenders with vast experience at the top level. You could be forgiven for hoping for an away win.
That hope would have turned into expectation after fourteen minutes as Mark Viduka rose like a salmon to flick Abel Xavier's long free-kick into the path of the charging Yakubu, whose delicate touch allowed him to finish in style.
Had Wigan heads dropped then they could have found themselves on the wrong end of a hiding before half time. Had Viduka scored when free inside the box from a James Morrison cross then they would almost certainly have done so.
They didn't, on both counts. Instead it was our turn to suffer as James Morrison's injury lead to the introduction of Doriva. A negative substitution if ever there was one and to some this was the beginning of the end. Myself included.
Before half-time Emmanuel Pogatezt saw his header from a Fabio Rochemback free-kick come back off the bar and fall to a Wigan shirt. Maybe it was going to be one of those "bad days at the office", in the words of our Great Leader.
Half time came. 1-0 up. A chance to get ourselves organised and see out the second half comfortably. Or so we thought.
The first fifteen minutes of the second half offered nothing. The crowd were subdued, as was the play. Off came Viduka, and on came Massimo Maccarone. From this moment on, we looked lost and unorganised.
From the stand it was hard to tell if we had gone 4-5-1 or stuck with 4-4-2. It seems that the players were also unaware of any formation change.
Had Maccarone been a straight swap with Viduka, or was Yakubu now the lone striker with Massimo on the right? Was Rochemback on the right or in a three-man midfield? Was Pogatezt or Franck Queudrue playing at left back?
The result of this confusion was an equaliser. With nobody playing on the right of midfield the Wigan left back was given time to play a ball over the top which big Ugo Ehiogu failed to deal with. A fortunate touch from Henri Camara allowed him to nudge the ball past Mark Schwarzer. 1-1.
Against a better team we would have surely lost that game. We never properly filled the gap on the right of midfield but Wigan never looked to capitalise on it. Every attack came down their right through full back Pascal Chimbonda.
Queudrue and Pogatezt didn't look comfortable in each others company. Both are defenders and both have an instinct to close down the right-winger, something they did simultaneously on more than one occasion leaving Chimbonda free to cross. Pogatezt may not be the answer to the left sided midfield problem. Time will tell.
We barely looked like scoring at all in the second half, a curling effort from Rochemback the closest we came.
Rochemback wasn't on the ball enough at all. The ball always seemed to be at the feet of Doriva, a player who cannot create or score goals.
The game spluttered to a close with both sides appearing happy with what they had. Wigan supporters clearly saw a draw with us as a point gained but most will see this as two points dropped.
1-0 up and coasting. Where did it all go wrong? The injury to Morrison was unfortunate, but was the in-form Maccarone not the more positive answer on the right of midfield than the defensive abilities of Doriva?
Viduka had a quiet game and I can't complain with his departure. But who was meant to be on the right and what was the formation? Confusion reigned. And everybody got wet.
The other reason for only getting a draw is the defensive blunder which allowed Wigan to score. Ugo hasn't looked comfortable for a very long time now, dating back to last season and his return from injury.
At home to Fulham towards the end of last season, a 1-1 draw, he had a shocker, but he recovered to be named man of the match away at Newcastle and he then played superbly at Man City on the final day.
This season though he was sent off at home to Liverpool, was truly awful against Charlton and got out of jail against Arsenal when his mistake lead to Jose Antonio Reyes striking a post.
But Sunday's gaffe could be the final nail in Ugo's coffin, with Chris Riggot and Matthew Bates waiting in the wings.
He has lost his pace and looks more than uncomfortable on the ball. On Sunday, he was guilty of a schoolboy error. Knocking the ball blindly across your own penalty box is the second golden rule of how not to defend a long ball. The first is don't let the ball bounce. Ugo did both.
Had he not committed such a fault, we could have won the game easily. Had we not messed around with the formation, Ugo would never have had to deal with that long ball. Had Pogatetz' header gone in off the bar instead of bouncing out, the game would have been over by half time. Que sera, sera...
Three games in seven days and unbeaten in all of them makes pleasant reading and five minutes before kick off against Arsenal, it is a statistic we would all have taken. However, you can't help but feel disappointed that we couldn't make it three wins from three.
We look to have put the Charlton humiliation behind us and we'll continue our unbeaten run on Sunday against Sunderland. There can only be one outcome against the league's whipping boys. A home win.
Same time next week. UP THE BORO!
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