WHZ On This Day: West Ham beat Wigan thanks to Carlton Cole screamer
Today marks 12 years to the day that West Ham went up to Wigan on a cold Wednesday night to score one of the goals of the season.
Despite an inconsistent patch, the Hammers were flying high in seventh place. The hosts, Wigan, were just one place below with a single point separating the two sides.
Managed by Gianfranco Zola, West Ham came into the game with two wins in their last five. A 2-0 win over Hull and 1-0 defeat of Manchester City came either side of a draw with Arsenal and losses to Manchester United and Bolton.
The Hammers came away from the JJB Stadium with all three points, thanks to a pearler of a goal from Carlton Cole. The match wasn’t short of controversy, however. West Ham Zone has taken a look back on the game.
The Carlton show
It was a heated contest, to say the least. West Ham travelled to Wigan with both sides well in the hunt for the European places.
After a dull opening to the game, Cole took centre stage in the clash from the 29th minute. Firstly, he was given a harsh yellow card for a late challenge Michael Brown. The striker had appeared to get the ball, but referee Stuart Attwell deemed it a reckless challenge.
Five minutes later, we briefly saw the Hammers turn into 1970’s Brazil, and the number 12 was involved again.
Scott Parker picked up possession in the middle of the pitch, firing the ball forward to David Di Michelle. The striker played a first-time back-heel to Mark Noble, who passed it straight back to the Italian.
Di Michelle got his head up and played a first-time ball into Cole, who had peeled off of Titus Bramble in the box. The Englishman stroked the ball into the bottom right cover of Chris Kirkland’s goal, in front of hundreds of travelling Hammers.
Cole approached the fans with his arms aloft. There was pandemonium in the away end, it was all a bit surreal. By far the best goal we’d seen all season, some exquisite one-touch football finished expertly. All coming from a game in which the quality had been dreadfully poor.
As was so often the way with Carlton, calamity was just around the corner. Just three minutes after possibly the best goal of his career, Cole was shown a second yellow and a red card for a high boot.
Rob Green had punted upfield. The striker, who in fairness, only had eves for the ball, raised his boot to take possession but made contact with Emerson Boyce’s head. The strangest thing of all was Boyce didn’t go down. There was only minimal contact, but Attwell had made his decision early and gave the big man his marching orders.
Wigan hadn’t offered anything in the game. The only thing the hosts managed of note was a red card of their own in the second half. Lee Cattermole lunged hideously at Parker with both feet off the ground. He got nowhere near the ball, and like Cole was sent for an early bath.
We held out playing 10v10 and were unlucky not to steal a second. Johnathan Spector raced through on goal in the closing stages, only to be cleared out by an incredible tackle.
It was a win that kept us in seventh spot. It opened up a four-point gap between us and Wigan in the race for Europe. Ultimately our season went downhill from there, as we finished the 08/09 campaign in 11th.
in other West Ham news, here is how we think the game can be won against Leeds United on Monday evening.