Wigan 2 Manchester City 1:THE WINNERS were bound to be a cosmopolitan group of capable footballers, no matter which team had the better of it. There should no longer be much surprise that it is Wigan who take the points in a game of this sort. The clues were in plain view.
While Manchester City got bogged down and beaten at Brighton in midweek, Steve Bruce's side glided past Ipswich with a 4-1 victory at Portman Road in their own League Cup tie.
The visitors, always better off than Wigan, are now incalculably richer following their takeover, but these are still early days for Mark Hughes. City lost to a more coherent team. There was a concerted aggression when they were harassing the opposition and a unity as reserves of energy drained away. It was intriguing that Bruce stuck by an exhausted line-up as much as he could. Lee Cattermole alone was replaced and that was unavoidable because of injury to the midfielder.
City still have to adapt to the idea that, following the flood of money pumped into the club, there is a higher price on their heads. Exotic factors were also a hindrance and no onlooker would have failed to guess which player had made a return flight to Brazil in midweek. Nobody else had Robinho's excuse. The malaise was engendered by Wigan.
Micah Richards and Richard Dunne floundered, for example, because of the pressure applied by Emile Heskey and Amr Zaki.
There was a comparable impact by Wilson Palacios, who had been given an advanced starting position in midfield from which he mostly stopped Vincent Kompany and Elano from establishing a rhythm for City. The visitors, though, will dwell on the consequences of one specific episode.
With the score tied at 1-1, Heskey laid the ball off to Palacios in the 34th minute. The left-back Javier Garrido attempted a challenge and the Wigan midfielder hurled himself through the air. All the same, there had, as Bruce insisted, been contact.
This was not a phantom offence, despite the exasperation of Hughes, the City manager, and the dissent that ensured a caution for Robinho. There was no twinge of shame as Zaki converted the penalty.
"We feel the referee had a hand in the outcome of the game," Hughes said of Steve Bennett. "Key decisions weren't made correctly."
It had begun to go wrong for Hughes in the 16th minute when a free-kick was cleared as far as Valencia, who lashed home a beautiful 30-yarder. City were level within six minutes as Olivier Kapo omitted to cut out an Elano free-kick and Kompany deflected the ball into the net from close range.
Guardian Service
Ireland not for turning .... up
STEPHEN IRELAND has ruled out any return to the Republic of Ireland set-up in the short term. Responding to questions on the subject last Saturday, the Manchester City midfielder said: "I'll never say never, but right now I don't miss international football. I'm happy playing for the club and I've got a young family to think of. My commitment is to Manchester City and my family. I wouldn't say I hated playing for Ireland; I just feel I'm better off being away from it.
"Concentrating only on City has enabled me to play better. If you look at the fixtures, we've got a game on Sunday, then on Thursday, then Sunday again, and then it would be Ireland (v Cyprus), but instead of playing for them, I'll have a few days off with my family to get ready for the Premier League again, which is getting harder every year."
