West Ham 0 Wigan 2

West Ham started with two changes from Sunday with Yossi Benayoun and Marlon Harewood in for Lee Bowyer and Bobby Zamora. Mascherano wasn't even picked as a substitute. Wigan left their leading goalscorer Camara on the bench.

West Ham made a nervy start and in the first minute Wigan hit the woodwork from a Kilbane header. Wigan then had the better of the first twenty minutes with Marlon Harewood's 6th minute speculative 20 yard shot, tipped round the post by Chris Kirkland, their only real threat on the Wigan goal.

After the 20th minute West Ham started to have the better of the play. In the 25th minute Konchesky crossed from the left and found Benayoun 12 yards out and his left-footed shot from the right side of the penalty area was blocked by Leighton Baines. In the 30th minute Harewood had another shot which just missed wide of the right hand post.

In the 42nd minute Kilbane nearly put the ball into his own net from an attempted headed clearance. From the resulting corner the ball fell to Tevez five yards out but he could only poke the ball wide. West Ham just shaded the first half in terms of chances created but Wigan were always in the half, and in fact shaded possession with 53%.

In the 50th minute Tevez ran at the Wigan defence and shot from the edge of the area and hit the post. Wigan immediately broke and Kilbane crossed into the West Ham penalty area and David Cotterill's left footed shot from 12 yards beat Green.

In the 58th minute Leighton Baines' 30 yard shot deflected off Jonathon Spector to give Wigan a 2-0 lead. Alan Pardew immediately brought Sheringham on for Benayoun. However Sheringham failed to make any difference to a poor West Ham side and Wigan continued to look the more threatening. In the 66th minute Scharner put the ball into the net for the third time for Wigan but the goal was disallowed for offside. West Ham it must be said had no answers to a solid Wigan side and thoroughly deserved to lose this game and leave the pitch to a chorus of boos from the fans.

And if a 2-0 home defeat to Wigan wasn't bad enough Newcastle's 3-2 win over Reading mean they move above West Ham and have a game in hand over the Hammers. West Ham now equal Charlton in the number of games lost and find themselves firmly in the relegation zone.

You have to think that Pardew's days are numbered. It looks like the new owners of West Ham expect to take up to £15 million a year out of West Ham (£5 million a year in interest and £100 million to be repaid over ten years). Relegation therefore would be financially disastrous for the new owners (there aren't many Cole's, Carrick's or Defoe's in the current squad who could be sold off to restore financial security). With Magnusson being spotted with a certain Sven-Goran Eriksson on Saturday things certainly don't look rosy for Pardew. On the other hand if the new owners want to guarantee West Ham's survival in the Premiership they may now dig a little deeper in their pockets for new players in January.