WIGAN 0, MIDDLESBROUGH 1

DAVID WHEATER is ensuring there’s at least one Northern rock worth investing in during these troubled times.

His Boro team-mate Jeremie Aliadiere may have stolen the points in the mother of all smash and grabs but it was the rookie defender who kept his side in the hunt prior to the 89th-minute strike.

Tough as it was on Steve Bruce, he may see some of himself in Wheater — a player willing to throw his face into any flying boot in pursuit of a clean sheet.

A bit like Brucie, he’s got that essential commodity in a centre-half. He’s not putting any modelling contracts at risk. England boss Fabio Capello arrived at the JJB to watch Emile Heskey and Chris Kirkland but he could not have failed to be impressed by the 21-year-old as he frustrated waves of home pressure.

Wheater is a prolonged international career waiting to happen. He has taken on talismanic status at the Riverside and those who made the journey from the North East greeted each of his tackles with a chant in his honour.

It was that sort of afternoon. Until a frantic finale, the application of those involved — mainly from Wigan and the Boro defence — was more admirable than the final product.

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“Wheater was good because it was the type of game where centre-halves had a chance to stand out,” said a jubilant Southgate, whose clenched fist at the final whistle underlined how much his first away victory of 2008 meant.

“Our mentality was right. The irony is we’ve played much more attractive football in previous games and taken nothing.”

While Wheater and the defenders excelled, Southgate cannot allow his celebrations to disguise the problems in the rest of his line-up. He must be tempted to have a quiet word with the scout who told him Afonso Alves was worth £12million, while Mido has the look of a man gasping for breath when he breaks into a jog.

Stewart Downing also struggled, although it was his neat header into Aliadiere’s path which led to the winner.

Slice

But after luckless defeats against Liverpool, Sunderland and West Brom, Southgate was valid in arguing the law of football averages owed him this slice of fortune.

Quite what Capello made of his afternoon’s viewing is anyone’s guess but the JJB experience must have been like no other in his esteemed career.

Wigan are a unique football club in the top flight. They are a throwback to a more innocent yesteryear before big business and selfish ambition yielded such a rampantly malevolent influence.

Culprit

There is always a sense you have entered a 1970s timewarp (to be fair, it’s a bit like that in the town centre, too).

Indeed, such was the sense of nostalgia at the JJB yesterday, it was a surprise Kenneth Wolstenholme or Brian Moore weren’t on commentator duty.

The game itself was a throwback to the 70s, too. In grim, North-West conditions it was more sweat and toil than flamboyance.

Premier League fixtures involving two up-and-coming English managers, backed by English owners, have become an endangered species — as rare as an empty swearbox in Joe Kinnear’s office.

Bruce and Southgate need to be so multi-lingual they’d be suitable for the job of foreign secretary but their football education is rooted firmly on home soil.

The fact they are still able to go head-to-head in an increasingly cosmopolitan era was worthy of celebration before a ball was kicked.

Wigan dominated but could not find the reward for an enterprising opening.

Wilson Palacios was the culprit on numerous occasions, shooting wastefully over from good positions.

And when the Latics did carve out acceptable late opportunities, Boro keeper Ross Turnbull frustrated Jason Koumas and a close-range Heskey effort.

A struggle of attrition looked to be heading towards an inevitable stalemate until Aliadiere found space a minute from time and slid the ball beyond the previously unemployed Kirkland.

The Frenchman’s mugshot will be appearing in the local paper for the next week.

It was a travesty for Bruce, whose previously lethal strikers had a misfiring afternoon.

Dave Whelan described Egyptian signing Amr Zaki as a ‘cross between Nat Lofthouse and Alan Shearer’ before kick-off.

In truth, at times he looks more like a cross between Nat King Cole and Bob Monkhouse, although his zest and infectious appetite for the game has caught the imagination of the Wigan public.

“I can’t explain it. It’s just one of those games you get in football,” reflected Bruce.

“Credit to their centre-backs because they were outstanding.

“We’ve been caught with a sucker punch at the end. We’ve been well and truly mugged.”

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