Nov 24 2009
Football: Wigan Athletic to appeal for replay of 9-1 Tottenham defeat
Following their crushing 9-1 defeat to Tottenham, the heaviest in the Premier League since Manchester United annihilated Ipswich 9-0 in 1995, Wigan have submitted an appeal to the Football Association to have the match replayed.
The appeal centres on the fact that Latics’ Austrian midfielder Paul Scharner committed a blatant handball in the build-up to his team’s goal - an offence that was completely missed by all of the officials.
Hey, if it’s good enough for Thierry Henry, it’s good enough for Paul Scharner. Do you like my glasses? — Paul Scharner
In fact, match referee Peter Walton can be thankful the scoreline was so large otherwise his general performance may have come under review, most likely leading to a stint in Fergie’s basement-come-torture-chamber. As it is, everyone (including the FA) is busy taking the mick out of Little Wigan.
Rugby town pie munchers deserved to get pummelled. Them and their ten supporters got what was coming to them. — Lord Triesman, Chairman of the FA (and Wigan rugby league fan)
Wigan do not hold out much hope of convincing the FA to order a replay seeing as Scharner is nowhere near as notable as Thierry Henry - in essence, nobody cares about Wigan Athletic outside of Springfield. This pretty much rules out Tottenham offering the game to be replayed as well.
Nevertheless, Wigan boss Roberto ‘Bob’ Martinez is adamant his team will fight for its rights to the bitter end.
Mark my words: by this summer, we’ll have offloaded the blighter [Scharner] and will be free of his incessant moaning about how he should be playing for a bigger club. Plus, his new haircut (top of post) looks more like a chocolate Battenberg or something, so maybe we should be sending him to Bourneville FC. — Roberto Martinez
The BBC, who normally provide an impartial view of the weekend’s action, were more interested in slating the choice of colour for Wigan’s away strip:
