Richmond Spurs: Match Report vs Wigan at home

Courtesy of Official Site-

Jermaine Jenas marked a new arrival with a return to his goalscoring habit
against Wigan Athletic on Sunday afternoon.
The speedy midfielder netted two
first half goals, added to by Aaron Lennon before the break and Darren Bent
afterwards as three Premiership points were banked for the first time since the
visit of Derby County to this arena back in August. Lennon's curling shot after
a Keane-Berbatov combination just failed to result in a shooting chance in the
opening stages, before a period of slick interchange had the Wigan defence
marking shadows and only a couple of fortunate deflections prevented likely
profit. It took until only the 13th minute for the deadlock to be broken and it
was Keane who brilliantly skipped past Andreas Granqvist on the left before
dispatching a low centre that evaded Chris Kirkland and was prodded home by
Jenas. Cue the baby rocking celebration, since the goalscorer last week became
father to a baby girl. A long ball from Michael Dawson was then nodded into the
path of Keane by Berbatov, but the leading scorer has not quite found his range
at that point. Dawson was later not too far wide with a big flick on from a
Jenas corner. JJ doubled the advantage with the clock showing 25 minutes.
Berbatov superb threaded throughball was left by the offside Keane and the
midfielder sped onto the pass, rounded Kirkland and applied a finishing touch in
front of goal. It was goal No.3 of the season for the athletic middleman.
Fatherhood clearly suits. Berbatov was the class act of the half and none more
so then when he plucked Paul Robinson's long clearance out of the air in the
Wigan area and calmly laid the ball back into the path of Lennon. Not known for
trying his luck from distance, the winger took a touch before steering firmly
past Kirkland from around 20 yards. The spark was well and truly back in the
side, they were hunting in packs, defending in numbers, while the football was
slick and efficient. Wigan, by contrast, looked all at sea. Just before the
break Jenas should have completed his hat-trick. Brilliant approach play from
Berbatov and Lennon set him off and running into the area before beating a
couple of defenders and looking like the easy bit was to come. The net did
rattle, but it was the side netting. It remained one-way traffic at the
beginning of the second half, one which saw an early entry for Teemu Tainio as a
replacement for the injured Malbranque. Wigan attempted to rally but were being
consistently picked off by the poise of Berbatov, the pace of Lennon and the
waspish attentions of Keane. To try and address the balance, caretaker boss
Frank Barlow introduced the tenacious Michael Brown. Jenas then thought he had
his third with a superb lift over Kirkland from Keane's supply line, but was
offside along with Berbatov. Shortly after the applause were huge when Keane
made was for Darren Bent. Lennon forced Kirkland into a stooping low save after
a darting run, but we didn't have to wait too much longer for the score to be
added to. Berbatov again was in creative mode, picking out the run of Jenas who,
in turn, located Bent on the run. The sub took the ball to the right of the area
before firing across Kirkland and in off the post. Bent later went for power and
was too far adrift when Berbatov once more set up a chance. It was that sort of
afternoon, you even suspected Didier Zokora might just get in on the scoring act
and he nearly did - his surging run and shot forcing a fine save out of
Kirkland. Berbatov next hit the underside of the bar and Younes Kaboul did
likewise with the follow-up in a game that saw confidence restored to the
mindset of seemingly each and every player.