...in an overcoat by January, but there were further signs yesterday that his Wigan Athletic team may not have to endure their predicted long, hard winter. They could not quite manage a third successive win in the Barclays Premiership, but they stand above Arsenal and Liverpool in the table after achieving a deserved point against Uefa Cup participants.
Middlesbrough tend to return from Europe like groggy men recovering from a stag weekend on the Continent but their eighth failure in nine attempts to follow a Uefa Cup outing with a Premiership victory was less to do with weary legs than being knocked out of their stride by the home side’s high tempo.
“He played really well for us,” Paul Jewell, the Wigan manager, said about the player, who battled through a leg injury suffered just before half-time. “Jimmy is as brave as a lion. He got a nasty knock but he didn’t want to come off. He epitomises our determination.”
The effervescence of Bullard, power of Damien Francis and scheming of Graham Kavanagh ensured Wigan dominated the centre of the pitch while Jason Roberts proved an effective target man up front and Henri Camara, a substitute, injected further pace to score the equaliser.
Also possessing a fairly sound defence, Jewell has the ingredients to match his feat of keeping Bradford City in the Premiership six seasons ago.
“That was as well as we have played (this season),” Jewell, whose team have beaten Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion, said. “They are a top-six side and for us to push them all the way is a credit to us.”
Last season the promoted trio each took at least eight games to record their first Premiership victory but Wigan have been far quicker off the mark, and the trait extends to individual achievements. In the previous home match Roberts scored a penalty against Sunderland that was won after just 12 seconds and here Camara found the net four minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Leighton Baines sent forward a long ball from the left-back position that Ugo Ehiogu, the stretching Middlesbrough defender, could only poke it into path of Camara, who prodded home his first Wigan goal past Mark Schwarzer, the onrushing goalkeeper. The Senegal striker’s speed troubled his opponents and he almost scored again eight minutes later when he lashed a low shot just wide.
Abel Xavier, the Middlesbrough defender, has played in six different national leagues but at times yesterday he looked as though he did not know which country he was playing in as Wigan hustled and harried. But Gareth Southgate, as usual, was a steadying influence, blocking a Roberts shot with a fine tackle and twice sending James Morrison clear with diagonal passes down the right, the second of which resulted in the winger crossing for Mark Viduka to sky his shot.
The Australia striker, known for an apparent lack of urgency, was eventually hauled off after a lazy Sunday afternoon’s work but he did at least play a part in his team’s goal, outjumping Arjan de Zeeuw to meet Xavier’s long free kick and head down for Yakubu Ayegbeni to slot the ball home from six yards.
Fabio Rochemback, Middlesbrough’s sixth Brazilian player in ten years, was peripheral on his second appearance for the club apart from two bright moments, crossing for Emanuel Pogatetz to head against the bar and beating two players before shooting wide. “It’s a learning process — he’ll know a lot more about the Premier League after today,” McClaren said. Impressed Premiership rivals are learning a lot more about Wigan each week.
THE GUARDIAN
Wigan, the team that almost everybody reckoned would go straight back down, picked up another unpredicted point yesterday. Though the gleeful chant of "We're going to win the league", with which the Wigan faithful celebrated Henri Camara's equaliser of Yakubu Aiyegbeni's first-half opener may just have been tongue in cheek, the theoretical gulf in class between Paul Jewell's honest triers and Steve McClaren's expensively assembled collection of internationals was bridged easily enough to suggest the Latics will continue to exceed expectations for some time yet.
It took those Wigan supporters a few minutes to find their collective voice, possibly because they could not quite believe their Guadaloupan full-back Pascal Chimbonda, on a balmy afternoon, was wearing gloves. Whether Jewell will be able to prise him out of the dressing room for an evening game in January remains to be seen but, along with the rest of the Wigan defence, Chimbonda had to warm up pretty quickly yesterday because Boro came out of the traps with an urgency that suggested they intended to maintain the momentum established by their win over Arsenal the previous weekend.
Scoring an early goal should have helped. A simple goal it was, too, worryingly so from Jewell's point of view. From within his own half Abel Xavier thumped a free-kick high towards the home penalty area, Mark Viduka outjumped Arjan De Zeeuw to head the ball on and Aiyegbeni, anticipating well, slipped it past Mike Pollitt. Perhaps the lack of sophistication took the Wigan defence by surprise but Jewell will remind them that Route One can work in the Premiership, too.
Viduka, back in place of Massimo Maccarone, was always a danger. The Australian has the knack of drifting away from his markers, and he might have scored shortly before the half-hour when he turned on James Morrison's cross but failed to keep the ball down.
At the other end Wigan's problem was not so much lack of possession as of ideas or at least the ability to execute them. Set pieces were their main hope of a break-through but, though Graham Kavanagh put one 25-yard free-kick a foot over the bar, they failed to test the Boro goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. The only time they looked like doing so, Gareth Southgate blocked Jason Roberts' shot.
In fact the visitors nearly went into the break two upbut Emanuel Pogatetz's header to Fabio Rochemback's free-kick from the left struck the bar. Wigan, their supporters knew, needed something extra; the sight of the pacy Camara, back from injury and warming up on the sidelines, suggested it might soon be introduced.
Wigan did get the ball into the Boro net just before the hour, when Lee McCulloch headed Chimbonda's cross over the line. Unfortunately for the home team he knocked Schwarzer to the ground before doing so, effectively enough to suggest that he could have a future with the town's rugby league team.
Camara finally arrived shortly after the hour, to make an almost immediate impact. Ugo Ehiogu seemed to have plenty of time to deal with Leighton Baines' long, curling ball but the defender got into a tangle and could only prod it ineffectually sideways. Camara reacted more quickly than Southgate to poke the ball past Schwarzer.
The goal should have prompted a furious response from McClaren's men but not for the first time this season their teamwork was noticeable for its absence. Rochemback was particularly culpable, embarking on a long run into a tangle of defending legs in the Wigan penalty area when Maccarone, on for the tiring Viduka, was unmarked to his right. Even so the last few minutes were nail-biting for the home supporters.
THE INDEPENDENT
Wigan might yet find staying in the Premier League to be a task beyond their limited resources, but they have already earned the respect of their new peers. A goal behind to Aiyegbeni Yakubu after 13 minutes at the JJB Stadium yesterday, Paul Jewell's side battled tirelessly to find a way back in this game and were rewarded by substitute Henri Camara's 68th-minute equaliser.
The point increased their tally to seven from five matches following wins against Sunderland, with whom they were promoted, and West Bromwich Albion. How much would Mick McCarthy's beleaguered Wearsiders give, even at this early stage, to have that many on the board?
"We perhaps should have built on our advantage but credit to Wigan," Steve McClaren, the Middlesbrough manager, said. "They have some good players and a never-say-die attitude and a few visiting teams will come unstuck here this season."
But can Wigan, whose gates will certainly be the smallest in the division, really beat the odds? Their personnel gives them the look of a Championship side fighting above its weight but Jewell did keep Bradford in the Premier League, so anything is possible. Yesterday it appeared canny Middlesbrough, confidence high after last weekend's win over Arsenal, might embarrass them after Yakubu, running on to Mark Viduka's flick, had too easily given the visitors the lead. Wigan rode their luck a little, relieved to see Viduka squander one chance and Emanuel Pogatetz head another against the woodwork, but as the visitors, playing their third game in a week, began to tire, they grew in strength.
"It was a bad goal to give away but though we lacked a cutting edge at times I thought we played some decent football," Jewell said. "Middlesborough are a top-six side, but we kept patient, did not resort to just hitting it long and we were more than worth our point."
The early goal enabled Middlesbrough to play conservatively, closing the space between their midfield and defence and Wigan often found it difficult to make headway. When they did break through, they found Ugo Ehiogu and Gareth Southgate, those pillars at the heart of the Middlesbrough defence, in the mood to give nothing away.
It took the arrival of Camara, back in contention after a foot injury, to unsettle them, the Senegal striker replacing David Connolly after 63 minutes and snatching his first goal for the club within five minutes. A long forward pass from Leighton Baines forced Ehiogu, facing his own goal, into a hastyclearance, charged down by Camara, who then sidestepped Southgate before firing the ball past Mark Schwarzer.
Until then, Wigan had produced only one genuinely penetrative move. Middlesbrough now regretted not adding to Yakubu's goal. Later, Fabio Rochemback's failure to spot an unmarked Massimo Maccarone, substitute for Viduka, undoubtedly cost another chance, but with his defence increasingly stretched, McClaren happily settled for a point.
THE TELEGRAPH
Henri Camara made up for lost time at Wigan by climbing off the substitutes' bench to score his first goal since his club-record £3 million arrival from Wolves last month and extend the Premiership newcomers' unbeaten run to three games.
Camara, sidelined with knee, ankle and hamstring problems since his appearance against Chelsea in the opening game, had only been on for four minutes before Ugo Ehiogu's failure to clear Leighton Baines' long pass gifted him the opportunity to claim a deserved equaliser.
Wigan manager Paul Jewell said: "I threw Henri on because I thought we needed a bit more up front and it paid off pretty quickly. Sometimes you get them right, sometimes you don't, but I usually get them right!
"His goal was well deserved because that's the best we've played this season."
Despite being written off as relegation fodder at the start of the season, Wigan ride high in the top half of the table. However, Middlesbrough's midweek European exertions against Xanthi blunted Steve McClaren's team and, as the home side grew in strength, Boro visibly lost steam.
Having taken the lead when Mark Viduka's flick-on from Abel Xavier's free-kick enabled Aiyegbeni Yakubu to score from close range on 13 minutes, Middlesbrough created enough opportunities to secure victory by half-time. Viduka spurned a clear strike from 12 yards, while Emanuel Pogatetz saw his powerful header from six yards crash against the crossbar seconds before the interval.
Although Wigan dominated possession with midfielder Graham Kavanagh running the game in front of watching Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr, Jewell's team struggled to carve out goalscoring opportunities until Camara replaced David Connolly on 64 minutes.
The Senegal forward had Ehiogu to thank for his goal, though. The former England defender should have kicked Baines' pass into touch, but confusion clouded his decision and he instead laid the ball into Camara's path. Two touches later and the ball was in the back of the net.
Wigan sensed Boro's fatigue and treated their visitors to a sustained bombardment for the closing 20 minutes, but McClaren's team survived and almost snatched victory when Xavier headed over from six yards a minute from time.
McClaren said: "Maybe we have suffered on the back of a European game again, but we started well and failed to take advantage.
"A week ago, I asked the players for four points from Arsenal and Wigan and a win in Europe. We've managed that, so I can't complain."