Wigan Athletic 3 Sunderland 0:Google Chris Hutchings and the top entry is a maker of curtains. After the Wigan manager's previous experience at Bradford City this might have seemed fitting. Stepping up from number two in identical circumstances, after Paul Jewell had heroically kept the side in the Premiership, he lasted 12 league games, of which one was won. This time it may be different. On Saturday evening they found themselves top of the league.
"Let's forget about Bradford," said Hutchings, as well he might, after a commanding win that stopped the Roy Keane bandwagon in its tracks.
Two penalties do not signify good fortune. It should have been three, as Greg Halford brought down Jason Koumas just after Emile Heskey had slid in Antonio Valencia's cross to give Wigan the lead. Koumas has brought variety, the on-loan Valencia adventure. Hutchings called Heskey "awesome". Sunderland made him look it.
"We're trying to pass the ball better and be more comfy on the ball," said Hutchings, who feels he has introduced "extra quality, six or seven players who have improved the squad, who share my ambition and the club's".
That ambition is not just survival, as it became last season in long-ball resort. For the moment soccer may be the new rugby league in Wigan, picking up the momentum that Jewell first gave them. Five seasons ago they kicked off against Cheltenham and Mansfield in front of fewer than 6,000. On Saturday it was 18,639.
Their defence will face tougher tests. Hutchings, after their midweek win over Middlesbrough, talked of concentration.
"We don't want to get too carried away," he said.
It made no impression on Titus Bramble. His first signing was caught away with the fairies at the start, his first touch a slice into trouble. It got better and there was one notable tackle on Michael Chopra but his days of promise at Ipswich are a distant dream, his subsequent form a recurring nightmare. Andreas Granqvist was a cool presence alongside on accident patrol. Fortunately Swedes are good on phlegm.
Fortunately too, and unexpectedly, Sunderland fell apart, giving Wigan the chance to strut a bit - Bramble needed no invitation - and the full backs to indulge overlapping tendencies that may be stronger than their defence.
Under Keane's guidance Sunderland seemed to have taken to the Premier League like black cats to a dairy and for quarter of an hour they purred here, with Dwight Yorke the fulcrum of free-flowing movement in central midfield. But once Wigan went ahead, initially from Ross Wallace's failure to clear, they became scratchy.
"Usually you can find some pluses but I can't think of any," said Keane, shaking a sombre head. "You find out more about people when you lose, who you want with you on the journey and who you don't, and I found out a hell of a lot today. We've got to learn, and we've got to learn fast. But some of the lads have been here before and clearly they haven't learned. I do take full responsibility; I'm the one who's picking the team. There's a fine line between loyalty and stupidity and I've been stupid. It won't happen again."
Few of the team would have wanted the manager with them on the journey back to the north-east of England.
At half-time, still only one down, Keane made two substitutions, as if he might be the new special one that others, though not himself, have been suggesting. It was as well he did not go for all three. Shortly Paul McShane, ever eager to prove his commitment, was gashed in a clash of jumping heads with Antoine Sibierski. Danny Collins, moving in from left back, conceded the first penalty while they had 10 men, Russell Anderson, McShane's substitute, the second in seven minutes.
If Keane, as he may be, is now looking for a new team to travel with, he may have to reconsider the Wag factor. In adversity heads dropped and shoulders slumped. "Weak and soft" he branded those with Wags in tow, who would not come to Sunderland for lack of shops. This lot were scarcely strong and hard. As cohesion waned, they looked badly in need of leadership and class. "I've always got people who want to take responsibility," said Hutchings. Old and new proved his point to Sunderland's disadvantage.
"You have to lose to win," he said, though it hardly did the trick for Mick McCarthy. At least, with four points, they are a quarter of the way to avoiding their third record low-points tally in six seasons. And this time last year, before Keane was there, they had lost all four league games. They can look forward to Liverpool and Manchester United next. Meanwhile, for Hutchings, the curtain goes up next at West Ham.
Sibierski, obtained on a free from Newcastle, may at last have found a big-fish role to suit him. With Heskey bearing the brunt up front, he kept cropping up in subtle, disconcerting places.
