Cup Calamity in the cold and wet of Wigan

Cup Calamity in the cold and wet of Wigan

It was a cold and wet Wednesday night in Wigan and we just couldn`t hack it. After the excitement and win on Sunday, Eddie made a host of changes for this 3rd Round FA Cup replay. Out went Smith, Francis, Gosling, Lewis Cook, Begovic, Ibe and Wilson. In came Borac, Simpson, Arter, Surman, Mahoney, Mousset, Afobe and Pugh with Steve Cook, Fraser and Daniels keeping their places. Although showing 433 set up on the twitter feed at 6.45 pm the team lined up with four at the back, with Fraser playing at right back.

The defensive frailties were soon apparent as Wigan took the lead from Morsy after just nine minutes. Some the defending was calamitous but it was not always the defence that caused the problem. Surman had a nightmare first half giving the ball away on far too many occasions and others, notably Pugh, Arter and Afobe just unable to put their foot on the ball or make constructive passes. Borac also didn`t help by being reluctant to hit the ball long and making perilous short passes from goal kicks which put everyone in a tizzy.

To be fair Wigan were allowed to rough us up and, with little support from the ref, Fraser was given the treatment by the Wigan lads. Our attack was a long way away in the first half but we either took an age to get the ball into a dangerous space or thee two front men wanted too many touches to cause too many problems.

HT Wigan 1 AFCB 0

All the Bournemouth fans were hoping that Eddie would give the team a good talking too and they would come out and give it a real go. And, for the first five minutes they really did but it went back to the previous service.

Our attack was woeful. I read somewhere on the website that Afobe had enough chances to make a game of it, and he did, but his ball control is just abject and the chances he had came and went because he could not control an orange in a paper bag.

Ibe came on for Mahoney who was not the worst player by a long in the Bournemouth kit. He did have some nice touches was, at time, frustrating and wasteful. Two Wigan goals, in quick succession, killed the game and although we huffed and puffed you just knew that we were not destined to score.

The better team won. Simples.

FT Wigan 3 AFCB 0

Borac 5 Made a couple of good saves but did not help the defence with his distribution, especially from goal kicks

Fraser 6 Did his best playing out of position, got clobbered a couple of time by the rough boys and was probably at fault for the third goal.
Cook 6 I don`t think he had a bad game but was not helped by those in front of him.
Simpson 6 Didn`t do too bad at all. Was pretty calm under pressure and was possibly thee only positive of the night
Daniels 5 He looks completely out of sorts at the moment and didn`t, at any time, look confident on the ball
Surman 4 To put it kindly, he was dreadful. Caught in possession, gave the ball away and poor link up play are just three things I can think of, off the top of my head.
Arter 5 He worked hard but no telling passes and he just doesn`t look the player he was two seasons ago

Mahoney 6 He had a quiet game. He didn`t do much wrong but it is difficult to remember him doing much right either
Mousset 5 He really tries but his close control lets him down and he always wants to beat another man.
Afobe 3 Woeful. Poor control, poor passing, poor shooting. He does hold the ball up but he needs to give so much more.
Pugh 4 Just not up to standard. He had the worst game I have ever seen him play for the Cherries

VERDICT. It wasn`t for a lack of effort – there was plenty. It wasn`t because the players didn`t care – you could see that they did. The team didn`t gel, the players didn`t play for or with each other. To be frank it was a shambles. It was Millwall all over again although, in the light that many fans have made an almost 500 mile round trip to watch the team, I actually think it was worse.