English Premiership
Wigan down West Ham
2012-10-27 18:25
Wigan - Wigan recorded their first home win of the season on Saturday with a clinical 2-1 win over West Ham in their Premier League clash.
Goals by Ivan Ramis, two days after his 28th birthday, and James McArthur were enough to secure much-needed points and a second win over the Hammers this season, having knocked them out of the League Cup earlier this term away from home.
Wigan's win saw them climb to 15th in the table, four points clear of the relegation places while West Ham, going down to only their second away defeat in 14 games, missed out on a chance to go fourth.
Victory rounded off a perfect day for extra special supporter Tom Gill, who was awarded a squad number and presented with the shirt prior to kick-off in celebration of his turning 100 earlier this week.
The hosts took an early lead as Spanish defender Ramis, who was a target for West Ham manager Sam Allardyce in the summer but opted to move from Mallorca to Wigan instead, beat Jussi Jaaskelainen with a brilliant volley.
Ramis then blotted his copybook by getting himself booked for a crude obstruction on Mohamed Diame but the resulting freekick came to nothing from Mark Noble.
Wigan nearly doubled their lead a few minutes later as Irish international James McCarthy let fly but his good effort was well saved by Jaaskelainen.
The Hammers came back strongly at their hosts and outstanding Omani goalkeeper Ali al-Habsi had to produce one of his trademark saves to keep out Matt Jarvis's curling cross.
Jaaskelainen then produced a good save of his own shortly before half-time as he got down well to save a Franco di Santo effort.
However, the Finnish goalkeeper could do nothing about Wigan's second as McArthur rounded off a well-worked move involving the impressive Jean Beausejour, whose cross was helped onto the scorer by Shaun Maloney.
West ham scrambled a late consolation effort through James Tomkins, who had been at fault for the second Wigan goal, as he headed home George McCartney's cross.