Kilbane seals Wigan win

Kilbane is congratulated by Scharner after crucial goal

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Wigan climbed out of the relegation zone as Kevin Kilbane's header gave them a 1-0 victory over West Ham.

A poor surface contributed to a scrappy first half and there was little sign of the deadlock being broken until, seconds before the interval, Kilbane guided Ryan Taylor's clever free-kick past Robert Green from a tight angle.

Taylor was a constant menace from set-pieces as Wigan threatened to add to their lead at the start of the second half, while Luis Valencia came agonisingly close with a ferocious shot from distance that ricocheted off both posts before coming out to safety.

Substitute Craig Bellamy had one good opportunity to equalise but otherwise West Ham were poor as Wigan comfortably held on for all three points.

Taylor was their architect in chief with his whipped-in dead-ball deliveries often causing the West Ham rearguard problems.

The first sign of that arrived in the 23rd minute when a swerving free-kick to the far post resulted in a Taylor corner from which Green missed his take, but with no Wigan player on hand to take advantage of the mistake.

When Matthew Upson climbed over Marlon King - on his home debut - soon after to clear a forward ball from Kilbane, up stepped Taylor to curl a 25-yarder inches wide of the left-hand post.

Taylor, a right-back by trade but playing on the left wing, then planted the ball onto Emile Heskey's head with a right-wing free-kick that led to the England striker glancing his effort through the six-yard box.

You would have figured the Hammers to have been extra vigilant as the game wore on to Taylor's tactics, but all the warnings went unheeded as Wigan struck deep into first-half injury time.

Opener

But he struck a powerful ball into the area for an unmarked Kilbane to loop an angled header over a stranded Green for what proved to be the winner.

Arguably, Michael Brown should have made it 2-0 six minutes after the break after Wigan had countered down the left with King.

Slipping the ball inside to Brown, the midfielder scuffed his first effort, but with a second bite of the cherry forced in a shot that was saved by the outstretched left leg of Green.

It was then the case that both defences continued to dominate, or the ball never ran kindly enough for a chance to materialise.

That was until the 71st minute when only cruel luck denied Valencia as he unleashed a powerful low drive that comfortably beat Green.

Both posts

Bellamy was introduced by Alan Curbishley and he almost rifled home the equaliser, only to shave the bar with a rising drive that proved to be the last chance of the game for the visitors.

Marcus Bent then cleared the bar with only Green to beat after the sub for Heskey early in the second half had sprung the offside trap.

It proved irrelevant as Wigan stopped the rot of three successive defeats to rekindle their survival hopes.