I may be well off the mark here but when Wigan went down to 10 men all they had to do was use Heskey as a lone striker with Folan dropping back into midfield in a 4-4-1 formation, keeping the same numbers in midfield and defence as before. While it goes without saying that we did play too much long ball and failed to get our wide men into the game on a regular enough basis, I don't think the extra man really benefited us as we didn't have the advantage in the areas that mattered. The only way we would really profit was to play three at the back in the knowledge that Heskey on his own didn't carry quite the same amount of threat as with Folan and play five in midfield (with maybe Bangura replacing one of the centre backs) and really go for the three points. Other than that as I said the way Wigan adapted to going a man down I don't think we had quite the advantage that most are making out. Thoughts?
