West Ham United 0 Wigan Athletic 2

Captain Baines got the second

New Hammers chairman Eggert Magnusson could have been forgiven for wishing that he had ploughed his £108million into Wigan Athletic after seeing his woeful West Ham slide into the bottom three following their second defeat inside four days.

David Cotterill's opener and Jonathan Spector's, Leighton Baines-induced, own goal gave the Latics a thoroughly deserved victory after both teams had come into this game following Merseyside maulings at the weekend.

Paul Jewell's side - in 13th spot - made two changes from the team that had lost 4-0 at home to Liverpool on Saturday as Cotterill and David Wright came in for Henri Camara and Achilles victim, Matt Jackson.

And even within the opening minute, the visitors were showing that they were clearly intent upon erasing the memory of that Reds' rout, when Josip Skoko's tantalising free-kick was nodded goalwards by the impressive Paul Scharner, only for the extended Robert Green to tip the well-placed header onto his left-hand upright.

Moments later, the fortunate Hammers 'keeper saw his clearance cannon to safety off the inrushing Lee McCulloch and Emile Heskey as they raced onto Hayden Mullins' carelessly under-hit back-pass.

With his side already hovering precariously in 17th place - just one point above the drop zone - it was proving a nervy opening for Alan Pardew, who had also made a couple of switches following Sunday's 2-0 reverse at Everton, with Marlon Harewood and Yossi Benayoun replacing Bobby Zamora and Lee Bowyer.

Although the breaking Harewood stung Chris Kirkland's fingertips with a sizzling 15-yarder, before later volleying inches wide from similar range, West Ham barely got the ball out of their own half during the opening period.

David Cotterill celebrates his opener

At the other end, Kevin Kilbane tested Green, once more, with a low 18-yarder that the keeper gratefully gathered, while Cotterill fired across the face of goal, Wright hooked over and McCulloch was again denied by the Hammers keeper, who somehow made it to the break with a clean sheet.

A seemingly revitalised Hammers side emerged for the second period and, within five minutes, the luckless Carlos Tevez saw his angled shot tipped onto the right-hand post by Kirkland to the dismay of the Argentinian, who simply cannot buy a goal for all the corned beef in Buenos Aires.

But with the woodwork still shaking, it was to prove the falsest of false dawns for Pardew's men and the turning point of the match.

Within seconds, Wigan's first raid of the second period saw Kilbane's low left-wing cross elude everyone in the danger zone, and when the ball finally arrived at the feet of the unmarked Cotterill at the back of the box, he calmly curled a 15-yarder under Green's right-hand angle.

And just four minutes later, there was to be no way back for the Hammers when Baines charged onto a half-cleared corner and let fly with a 35-yarder that flew back through the pack, before ricocheting off Spector's waist, beyond the wrong-footed Green.

The arrivals of Teddy Sheringham and George McCartney in place of Benayoun and the injured Anton Ferdinand were never going to turn the tide on a night when West Ham were simply swept away and, but for an offside flag, the disappointed Scharner could have heaped yet more misery on woeful West Ham, who now face a daunting and difficult December.