CALEB Folan condemned struggling City to a fourth consecutive Premiership defeat as the Blues strikeforce misfired once again.

The £500,000 transfer-window arrival from Chesterfield nodded home Latics' first-half winner to continue a revival which seems certain to preserve their top-flight status.

With Charlton drawing their relegation clash at Watford, Wigan are now eight points above the drop zone, having leapt above City, who have slumped to fourth bottom and whose league season is in freefall.

Stuart Pearce's men may have two games in hand of all their relegation rivals, but they still have the entire top four still to play.

And, though an FA Cup quarter-final with Blackburn awaits next weekend, it is probably going to be the failings of others that keeps afloat a club who, more than most, can ill afford a financially catastrophic drop into the Championship, having posted a £7.1million six-month loss earlier this week.

Booed

Getting booed off is sadly becoming a regular occurrence for Pearce and his team.

On their showing over the opening half-hour, the negative reaction which accompanied the half-time whistle was totally justified.

Quite frankly, the Blues were abysmal. Virtually devoid of any shape, they lacked ideas and inspiration and totally failed to find any method of combating Folan and Emile Heskey, who scored twice in the Latics' four-goal hammering of City earlier in the campaign and recovered from a groin injury to terrorise them once more.

Like Leroy Lita, who scored for Reading on this ground a month ago, Folan is another striker Pearce has run the rule over without actually buying.

The former Leeds trainee proved what he could do with a goalscoring appearance for Chesterfield in the League One side's Carling Cup triumph over City earlier this season.

Where Pearce hesitated, Paul Jewell did not and already the relatively meagre sum paid for the 24-year-old is looking a wise investment.

His pace alone makes Folan a difficult player to subdue and the home defence had their hands full keeping him quiet long before he nodded Wigan in front.

When Richard Dunne sent Leighton Baines' long free-kick looping into the air, someone surely should have picked Folan up. Instead, he was allowed the freedom of the six-yard box to nod over Nicky Weaver.

That Wigan did not wrap up victory during that dominant start was partly due to their own bad finishing, but also the failure of referee Howard Webb to spot Michael Ball clattering Antonio Valencia just inside, rather than outside, the City area.

Failed

Still, Webb was blameless when Lee McCulloch miserably failed to convert Folan's astute cut-back, instead bouncing a 10-yard shot into the ground, then over the bar.

City's fortunes changed markedly after Hatem Trabelsi had been replaced by Sun Jihai.

The China international may have expressed his dislike of life in England earlier this week but he remains a favourite of the City support and his energy alone brought a greater sense of urgency to home ranks.

Three Joey Barton corners in succession threatened danger before the interval. Emmerson Boyce turned one marginally wide of his own goal but was then on hand to boot off the line when Micah Richards nodded the second past Latics keeper John Filan, who snuffed out the danger on the third with a timely intervention.

Having left new arrival Emile Mpenza on the bench, another ineffective display from Georgios Samaras persuaded Pearce to introduce the Belgium international at the break.

Mpenza almost enjoyed the perfect start to his City career too as he came within inches of turning home a DaMarcus Beasley cross which looped towards the far post off Denny Landzaat.

Beasley may appear a bit lightweight for the Premiership but his speed offer City a useful attacking weapon and, after Mpenza had won a penalty-box tussle with Boyce, the USA international was onto the loose ball in a flash, only for Filan to save with his legs.

Try as they might, and in fairness they did, City could find no way through Wigan's stubborn defences and in the end were reduced to seeing Dunne trying to handle the ball in during an injury-time scramble.

Even that move failed and, as the final whistle blew, Pearce and his men were once again forced to endure the taunts of their own supporters.

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