Wigan Athletic 1 Newcastle Utd 0:Sam Allardyce was scathing of his players after this defeat and said he was not happy to have his future as Newcastle United manager in their hands. "It was a poor performance," he said. "We couldn't cope with Wigan being high-tempo and hard-working.

"Some of our players have not lived up to their reputation. The front players have not held the ball up and the creative players have not created. Today the appetite to beat the opposition was not there. I'm not happy to have my future in their hands. We can't shrivel up and die under pressure."

United have wasted an easy run of fixtures with a home draw against Derby County and defeat yesterday. Even this season, when they have seldom impressed, they can rarely have played as badly as this, devoid of passion and purpose. They handed Wigan a first clean sheet for 16 matches, a record that stretches back to mid-August and a 3-0 defeat of Sunderland.

Steve Bruce, Wigan's manager, had been up half of Christmas night with a bug and a burst blood vessel in an eye. "I can't keep anything down," he said - but he might yet keep Wigan up.

Bob the Builder was the winner of the half-time fancy-dress competition and, on the evidence of the season so far, he would not particularly fancy either of these rebuilding jobs.

But Wigan's hopes of escaping relegation will be rekindled after Ryan Taylor's 65th-minute free-kick gave them only their second win in 16 games and lifted them out of the bottom three.

Taylor's winner was a heart-warming Christmas tale of which Dickens would have approved. He broke a leg badly in a reserve game against Newcastle and, given a first-team chance in the final game of last season against Sheffield United, broke it again.

Perhaps life is beginning to go his way.

When he stroked the ball into Shay Given's top-right corner, it was the only decent shot from both sides in the game.

"He has a great delivery of the ball," said Bruce, "as good as anyone you have seen. We won't go overboard but we look as if we have the stomach for the fight. We showed a lot of endeavour and for a couple of minutes we saw a bit of football."

It was an execrable first half. Nothing of any consequence happened, no skill to stir the soul, no rumbustious physical confrontation to make the heart beat faster, no comic moment to give us all a laugh. It was 52 minutes before either goal was threatened.

Mario Melchiot, his ponytail quivering, dallied in front of his own goalkeeper, Damien Duff challenged, Mark Viduka attempted an overhead kick but Paul Scharner raced back to hack off the Wigan line.

Allardyce immediately resorted to 4-3-3, bringing on Obafemi Martins on the right of the attack and his enterprise made him comfortably the most dangerous of Newcastle's strikeforce. How any manager of a struggling side can stomach Mark Viduka's immobility remains one of life's mysteries.

Given went on to give Newcastle palpitations eight minutes from time when, under pressure from Steven Taylor's back pass and with Marcus Bent bearing down, he chipped up a volley and then contrived to back-kick it wide of his own posts.

This team will never perform for Allardyce and he knows it but his record suggests that Newcastle should entrust him with the rebuilding work. Despite his current predicament his opposite number Bruce remains a fan.

"Sam got the job because of his great record at Bolton," he said. "He can turn this round. He needs time to put his stamp on it."