Wigan's late blooming shows no sign of ending

Wigan Athletic 4 Newcastle Utd 0:ALAN PARDEW came to the DW Stadium on the back of six successive Premier League wins and Newcastle United looking capable of staying ahead of Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in the race for fourth place, yet by the time he left it was his rival manager whose praises were being sung.

"Roberto Martinez is a brilliant manager and one day he will get one of the top jobs in Europe," the Wigan Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan, said.

"I don't want to lose him but it is inevitable he will climb the ladder and when that time comes he will leave with my blessing."

The exact opposite of an owner like Roman Abramovich, Whelan is prone to gush any time a microphone is shoved in his direction, but even Pardew used the word brilliant to describe Wigan's four-goal first-half display.

"For a team fighting relegation you couldn't say they lacked confidence, could you?" the Newcastle manager said.

"They overload the wide areas and pull you around but I don't want to say too many negative things about my team because I think that's unfair on Wigan. They did a brilliant job on us."

Surprisingly, in view of the fact that Wigan's first three goals all came from the flanks, Martinez played down the significance of the formation that has now accounted for Manchester United, Arsenal, and Newcastle.

"Players win games, not shapes or systems. Getting to a better position in the table brings a psychological benefit, we have probably gone to a different level in terms of believing in ourselves, but we know if we don't get more points it will be a disappointing feeling."

Wigan will get more points if they attack Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the way they went at Newcastle. Their opening goal fully illustrated their use of space and width, with a wonderful pass from Shaun Maloney on the left releasing Emmerson Boyce on the right, for a cross that Victor Moses nimbly headed past Tim Krul.

Moses scored a second two minutes later before Beausejour and Franco Di Santo combined to send Maloney behind the Newcastle defence to beat Krul with a cool finish.

Newcastle probably imagined things could not get any worse but in first-half stoppage time they did, Di Santo trying his luck from 25 yards and finding Krul's top corner.

April is supposed to be the cruellest month but Martinez now has reason to think otherwise.

"When I arrived at this club we had never beaten a top-four side. Now we have beaten Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle - and for me it was a victory at Chelsea no matter what the scoreline said - so it has been a massive, massive month.

"I think it has been a turning point in our entire history."