Source: Telegraph
Wigan Athletic 4 Hull City 1: match report
Maybe it was the cost of watching Premier League football over the Christmas period, or perhaps it was the prospect of watching two sides struggling at the wrong end of the table, but only around five thousand punters stirred themselves to show up at a freezing DW Stadium. [LNB]The encounter raised two questions. The first was whether Wigan Athletic or Hull City would consider the FA Cup an unwelcome distraction in the battle for top-flight survival or welcome respite. [LNB]In terms of momentum ahead of the tie, Hull had battled back from 2-0 down to earn a 2-2 draw at Bolton earlier in the week. Wigan failed to turn up at Manchester United ion midweek and took a deserved 5-0 hammering. The second question then was whether Hull would have the psychological advantage. [LNB]Neither question was satisfactorily answered in a first half that failed to catch light. [LNB]Roberto Martinez and Phil Brown never left their technical areas as they watched their respective sides labour through what was a tediously disjointed affair. [LNB]That was, however, until the 34th minute when Geovanni sprinkled some magic dust over the DW Stadium. [LNB]The Brazilian had earlier wasted a free kick from just outside the box, but was presented with another opportunity just after the half-hour. [LNB]Hull's Guinean centre-back Kamil Zayatte had surged forward, bursting past three Wigan challenges to reach the upper reaches of the Wigan half. In a less edifying example of centre-back work, Titus Bramble scythed him down on the edge of the box. [LNB]Geovanni did not put his earlier free kick chance to waste. From twenty-three yards out he zipped it past an onlooking Pollitt into the top left hand corner. It was a rare moment of Premier League class in what up to then was a scrappy and largely forgettable affair at the DW Stadium. [LNB]Suddenly a broad smile broke across Brown's weathered features which remained until the half-time whistle as his Hull side took control of a match they had barely deserved to keep at parity. [LNB]Up until Geovanni's moment of brilliance, Wigan had looked the side more likely to make the break through, the Wales-Honduras midfield axis of Jason Koumas and Hendry Thomas having gaining the upper-hand over the Tigers' midfield. [LNB]Scott Sinclair was terrorising the ponderous Kevin Kilbane down the right and it was taking all of the Republic of Ireland's nous to keep in the tussle. However, it was to be his pace that would be Hull's downfall in the second half. [LNB]Martinez took action at the start of the second half, replacing Jason Koumas with Charles N'Zogbia, a switch that was to suddenly spark his side into life. [LNB]N'Zogbia, who seemed a strangely disinterested spectator in the debacle at Old Trafford, surged past a static Kilbane in the 47th minute and shot hard and low across Hull keeper Boaz Myhill. The goal went some way to compensating for his inept midweek display. [LNB]Wigan were now asking serious question of the Tigers defence and in the 63rd minute 19-year-old tyro James McCarthy dramatically turned the tie on its head, firing home through a forest of legs. [LNB]Four minutes later and Wigan were 3-1 ahead. N'Zogbia struck again, coming in from the right and firing a left foot shot into the far corner. [LNB]In the second minute of stoppage time the excellent Scott Sinclair served up the coup de grace, emphatically slamming home a right foot shot high into the net to put the Latics into the fourth round.[LNB]
