Now then, that was better wasn’t it? A proper blood and thunder encounter with four goals shared and incidents a plenty. Three points would have been an added bonus but then you can’t have everything. What is always fascinating is that we all watch the game through different lens and it seems both sets of fans felt like they should have finished the game with three points tucked in their back pockets.

The more extreme views suggest Everton could have had three men sent off with Fellaini, Jelavic and Neville all making the sort of dubious challenges that maybe aren’t a clear red card but always seem to be a red card when it’s a Wigan player committing the offence. And from an Everton perspective they were claiming that they should have had not one or two but THREE penalties and our first goal was offside (and it was!).

However, slipping my Latics hat back on they actually had three penalty appeals, there’s a big difference! And surely, if the ref had done his job in the first half they would have only had eight men in the box and wouldn’t have been enjoying such possession and therefore wouldn’t have been able to pump the ball into the box continually, look for contact and drop like a stone.

After the first two, I turned to my mate and said, they’ll get the next one they appeal for and sure enough they did. Before I look too biased, I suppose it’s only fair to say that none of them were clear cut yet all of them could have been given so I suppose it was inevitable Everton would get at least one and it was no surprise to see Leighton Baines gleefully slotting home. We always seem to eager to oblige with a spot of schoolboy defending to accompany this mind you.

Once they had drawn level, the game reverted to type again with Latics coming forward more and Everton subject to playing on the break. Funny how the pattern of a game changes. Every event in football is sequential you see and maybe had we made more of our first half performance, Everton could have been out of sight but their confidence grew as the game went on and that draw we got at the end seemed a fair scoreline.

Overall, a performance we’ll take with Everton riding high and although we’re still waiting for our first home win of the season, there was enough in there to get excited about particularly with our front three linking up well.

First published in the Wigan Evening Post’s 12th Man Column on Wednesday 10th October 2012

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