Battling ten men Latics fall to late Owen winner

Latics were minutes from gaining a valuable point at St. James' Park despite having Kevin Kilbane sent off at the beginning of the second half, but Michael Owen scored with a header from Obafemi Martin's cross with just four minutes left.

It was a cruel end for Latics, who fought with determined grit all afternoon after seeing Kilbane being shown red after challenging Alan Smith for an aerial ball just forty seconds after the restart. It was the Wigan man's second bookable offence, and it was certainly a harsh decision by referee Steve Bennett.

As a result, Emile Heskey had dropped onto the left flank as Marcus Bent made his debut when he replaced Jason Koumas just before the hour.

But boss Chris Hutchings was forced to shuffle his pack much earlier when after half-an-hours play Denny Landzaat suffered an eye injury and had to be replaced by Australian midfielder Josip Skoko.

Wigan had their best chance and were denied a lead on 19 minutes when defender Steven Taylor fouled Antonie Sibierski to concede a free-kick. It was Koumas who took it and the Welshman curled his effort from 20 yards over the Newcastle defensive wall only to see goalkeeper Steve Harper tip it away, and from the resulting corner, Antonie Sibierski directed a header towards the corner of the goal, but once again Harper was on song.

At the other end Owen, who made a first league start after recovering from a long term injury had two brilliant opportunities to open the scoring. Within the first ten minutes the Newcastle striker forced Kirkland into a brilliant fingertip save as he latched onto a Mark Viduka flick on and went one-on-one with the Latics shot stopper.

The 27-year old had even got the ball in the net on 17 minutes only to see it ruled marginally offside, and he took advantage of a Andreas Granqvist slip when Owen was through on goal once again, but Kirkland put pressure on the striker, and Owen applied too much power to his finish. Kirkland also did well towards the end of the first half when he blocked Alan Smith's header at the near post.

Titus Bramble, on his return to his former club, made a well timed tackle in the first half on Viduka to deny the former Boro and Leeds man score, and the Latics defender continued to have a solid performance at the back as he also prevented Michael Owen a shot on target in the second period. The Toon Army also saw Taylor head against the woodwork, but it took much longer for the Magpies to break down Wigan's resolute approach after going down to ten men.

Although Latics understandaly did not create too much after Kilbane's red card, they certainly did themselves proud with a heroic defensive performance which was only undone by a late, late Michael Owen goal.

LATICS: Kirkland; Melchiot (c), Granqvist, Bramble, Kilbane; Landzaat (Skoko 29), Brown, Scharner, Koumas (Bent 58); Heskey, Sibierski (Boyce 48).

SUBS: Pollitt, Boyce, Aghahowa.

BOOKED: Kilbane, Heskey, Scharner, Brown

SENT OFF: Kilbane

NEWCASTLE: Harper; Taylor, Rozehal, Cacapa, N'Zogbia; Geremi, Butt, Milner; Smith (Martins 65), Owen, Viduka.

SUBS: Given, Ameobi, Edgar, Pattison.

BOOKED: Smith, N'Zogbia

GOALS: Owen 86

REFEREE: Steve Bennett