Wigan made their third trip in as many months to Wembley Stadium for their first ever Community Shield appearance against the Premier League Champions Manchester United.
In the end the victory was comfortable for the Premier League side in what can be viewed as a distraction to the main aim of regaining their Premier League status.
New Wigan manager Owen Coyle opted to change last week’s winning team, dropping Beausejour replacing him with new signing James McClean.
The Wigan side had only four starters from the F.A.Cup final in May showing how dramatic the turnaround of personnel over the summer months.
First real chance result in a goal when Untied found space on the left, a beautiful cross found Van Persie who had lost Crainey his marker and a beautiful loping header beat Carson to nestle in the net and the overwhelming favourites had the lead.
Wigan hit back but good work from McCarthy was wasted by Crainey and the chance went begging.
Zaha looked sharp and got past Crainey but Barnett was alert to the danger conceding a corner.
For the first twenty minutes United exerted total dominance through midfield with Wigan playing very much a rearguard action but as the half went on Wigan grew in confidence with McClean looking sharp and a lovely cut in from the left saw him fire a shot/cross across the area which went unchallenged.
Untied looked dangerous down the wings and Evra and Cleverley linked well and the ball fell to Welbeck who forced Carson into a smart save.
Holt and Vidic were having a personal battle and following one incident Wigan received a free kick, a lovely floated ball from Watson found Boyce at the back if the area, his header back across was just too far in front of his team mates and the chance wasn’t taken.
The second half started in much the same vein, with Wigan passing the ball around without any real penetration and their lack of cutting edge was exposed cruelly when Van Persie turned and shot from inside the penalty area and a wicked deflection off Perch wrong footed Carson and United had doubled their lead without breaking sweat.
This sparked Coyle into a triple substitution with McManaman, Fortune and McCann replacing McClean, Holt and McArthur respectively.
The game was effectively over as a contest and United took their foot off the pedal and whilst Wigan continued to huff and puff, their efforts didn’t produce a shot on target and other substitutions; Dicko, Gomez and Espinoza further unbalanced the team and the final whistle brought to end a game which can only be viewed as a good workout.
Team Line up and Player ratings
4-5-1
Carson…………………………..Couldn’t be faulted for either goal 7
Boyce (c)……………………… .Put under a lot of pressure 6
Perch…………………………… A solid performance 7.5
Barnett……………………….. Stood up well, MOM 8
Crainey……………………….. Left struggling against pace 5
Maloney…………………………..very quiet performance 6
McArthur……………………….. industrious but out played 6
McCarthy……………………… out played by quality opposition 6
Watson…………………………. poor passing, tended to slow play down 5
McClean……………………….. looked sharp 7
Holt……………………………… worked hard but created little 5
Subs Use
McManaman for McClean………….. little chance to shine 5
Fortune for Holt………………………… looked sharp but no chances 5
McCann for McArthur……………….. Best of the subs 6
Gomez for Maloney…………………. Showed some nice touches 5.5
Espinoza for Watson………………… tenancious in defence 5.5
Dicko for McCarthy…………………. n/a
Ref Mark Clattenberg
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