English FA Premiership/ Wigan Athletic 1 Middlesbrough 1: Wigan, the team that almost everybody reckoned would go straight back down, picked up another unpredicted point yesterday.
Though the gleeful chant of "We're going to win the league", with which the Wigan faithful celebrated Henri Camara's equaliser of Yakubu Aiyegbeni's first-half opener may just have been tongue in cheek, the theoretical gulf in class between Paul Jewell's honest triers and Steve McClaren's expensively assembled collection of internationals was bridged easily enough to suggest the Latics will continue to exceed expectations for some time yet.
Scoring an early goal should have helped Boro. From within his own half Abel Xavier thumped a free-kick high towards the home penalty area, Mark Viduka outjumped Arjan De Zeeuw to head the ball on and Aiyegbeni, anticipating well, slipped it past Mike Pollitt.
Viduka, back in place of Massimo Maccarone, was always a danger. The Australian has the knack of drifting away from his markers, and he might have scored shortly before the half-hour when he turned on James Morrison's cross but failed to keep the ball down.
At the other end Wigan's problem was not so much lack of possession as of ideas or at least the ability to execute them. Set pieces were their main hope of a break-through but, though Graham Kavanagh put one 25-yard free-kick a foot over the bar, they failed to test the Boro goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. The only time they looked like doing so, Gareth Southgate blocked Jason Roberts' shot.
In fact the visitors nearly went into the break two up but Emanuel Pogatetz's header to Fabio Rochemback's free-kick from the left struck the bar.
Wigan did get the ball into the Boro net just before the hour, when Lee McCulloch headed Chimbonda's cross over the line. Unfortunately for the home team he knocked Schwarzer to the ground before doing so.
Camara finally arrived shortly after the hour, to make an almost immediate impact. Ugo Ehiogu seemed to have plenty of time to deal with Leighton Baines' long, curling ball but the defender got into a tangle and could only prod it ineffectually sideways. Camara reacted more quickly than Southgate to poke the ball past Schwarzer.
* Guardian Service
