Football story by Carl Anders, Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:16:00 GMT


Jason Roberts and Henri Camara were in fine form as Wigan overcame West Ham 2-0 in Premiership action last night. Both the strike partners' had a role to play in the others' goal and manager Paul Jewell was happy enough to admit that Wigan could indeed stay on in the Premiership.

Jason Roberts has hit a purple patch and has scored five goals in his last three games. He got the first goal as a neat pass from Camara landed on his feet. Roberts had no difficulty in slipping the ball past Roy Carroll. Two minutes later Roberts repaid the favor by putting Camara through for the second goal for Wigan.

Bobby Zamora tried to get the Hammers back into the match, but it was entirely his fault as he wasted two good headers after the break. Shaun Newton came on for the listless Bellion at the break for West Ham, but they were unable to pierce a tough Wigan defense. Arjan de Zeeuw had a chance to triple Wigan's score late in the game, but is shot went wide.

West Ham boss Alan Pardew was disappointed at the lack of progress of his team, "It was just a night that didn't go right. I can say to the players they've been brilliant this season apart from this match," he rued. "I feel the balance of the team was not quite right either but luckily we have Saturday to put things right."

Paul Jewell finally admitted that his team could go on to achieve something more than just survival in the Premiership, "We have 34 points now, our target was 40, and we are doing far better than anyone expected," he said. "I thought at this stage we'd be down fighting. We're not getting carried away but we're delighted with our progress so far."

Match Details
Referee: S Bennett.

West Ham: Carroll, Dailly, Ferdinand, Collins, Konchesky, Bellion (Newton 45), Reo-Coker, Mullins, Fletcher (Zamora 25), Etherington, Harewood (Aliadiere 82).

Wigan: Pollitt, Chimbonda, De Zeeuw, Jackson, Baines, Teale (Francis 84), Bullard, Kavanagh, McCulloch, Roberts, Camara (Connolly 81).

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