Classy Latics tower over Blackpool

THE Premier League has fallen out of love with Wigan a little but beyond the grey perception of a half-empty ground in a rugby league town, there is side brimming with youth and vigour.

It feels like such a long time since the Latics have brought us any fun, half a decade since they felt fresh as Paul Jewell’s team pushed to a top-half finish after coming up from the Championship with the likes of Leighton Baines, Jimmy Bullard and Lee McCulloch relishing their shot at the big time.

Dave Whelan kept spending, funding a squad that coughed up the wages for players like Emile Heskey and Chris Kirkland to fill the squad.

The last few years have seen Whelan scale back his financial input with talk he is trying to get the club to run itself before he walks away from the modestly-titled DW Stadium.

They have only won 16 Premier League matches since Roberto Martinez took over in the summer of 2009 and have been in trouble ever since their 4-0 defeat to Blackpool on the opening day.

But the Spaniard maintains that survival this season could alter the course of the club’s history.

Lacking transfer funds, Martinez has got the best out of Hugo Rodallega and Charles N’Zogbia and has assembled a front six of power, intelligence, craft and youth.

Both Rodallega and N’Zogbia arrived in January 2009 under Steve Bruce but Martinez has brought a new dimension to both.

At the weekend they were backed up by an awesome central three of James McCarthy, Mohamed Diame and Ben Watson, with on-loan Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley wide on the left.

And pretty much all of the praise that was heaped upon Blackpool in the first half of the campaign was applicable to the way Wigan went about their business.

There were two Scotland-born midfielders with big reputations on show but it’s hard to imagine scouts heading away from Bloomfield Road thinking that Charlie Adam had a sniff against McCarthy.

The former Hamilton midfielder’s power is often overlooked but he was everywhere and used the ball intelligently. Diame was also non-stop, while Watson looked a class act, stroking the ball around in front of the back four.

They are outside of the relegation zone for the first time in 10 weeks and travel to Sunderland at the weekend with a chance to move within a point of Steve Bruce’s free-falling team.

“We have good players and a strong squad, and if we stay up there is a chance to achieve something better in future,” N’Zogbia said.

Roberto Martinez acknowledges there is plenty of work to be done yet: “We’re still in the same danger of getting relegated. With our poor goal difference, we need 41 points. We’re only on 34 so we still need seven.

“We have done nothing yet.’’

It was another sobering jolt by the seaside for a Blackpool team that has now lost 12 of their last 16 matches.

They have never convinced defensively but, without David Vaughan, Wigan nullified Adam, reduced to attempting 50-yard passes through crowds of bodies.

Craig Cathcart gifted them an opener after just two minutes with a slack free kick and a slip that allowed N’Zogbia to feed Rodallega to score.

Just before the break Adam was robbed and N’Zogbia burst through to double the lead before Diame’s shot flew in off Neal Eardley for 3-0.

Blackpool pulled one back through DJ Campbell but they are in the drop zone for the first time this season.

What must worry them is that they are proving such a soft touch at home and their two away matches are at Spurs and Manchester United.

A defiant Holloway said: “We’ve been looking down and now we’ve got to look up and that suits us better.”