For the second game in succession, Wigan boss Roberto Martinez saw one of his players on the receiving end of a tackle which merited a red card.

Martinez criticised Craig Gardner’s studs-up challenge on Franco di Santo at Birmingham City the previous week as “reckless” and “excessive.”

And the Latics supremo employed the same words to describe Wolves captain Karl Henry’s 11^th-minute challenge which sent Jordi Gomez flying through the DW Stadium.

 

Both opposition managers, Birmingham’s Alex McLeish and Wolves’ Mick McCarthy, accepted that the offences merited instant dismissal.

But Gomez was fit enough to fire in a wonderful second-half free-kick from the edge of the penalty area. This set Wigan on their way to a 2-0 victory, with Colombian striker Hugo Rodallega adding the second goal.

Martinez faces battles to keep loanees, goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi and midfielder Tom Cleverley at the club.

Al-Habsi is on a 12-month loan from Bolton, and Martinez wants to make the move permanent in January.

However, Trotters manager Owen Coyle has warned that “the only way Wigan can keep him is by paying our club a large transfer fee.”

And Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said this week of the 21-year-old Cleverley: “We’ll probably bring Tom back in January. He’s going to be a great footballer, I really like him.”

Wigan will host Martinez’s previous club Swansea in the Carling Cup fourth round on Tuesday October 26^th. And they visit Newcastle for their first EPL fixture after the international break, on October 16^th.