IT MAY seem obvious to say that goals change a game but this match proved it. You wouldn’t have given Wigan a prayer after only 10 minutes, when they were 2-0 down, let alone at half-time when the score was the same and they had mustered scarcely one major attempt on goal.

However, they scored within a couple of minutes after the interval and took it from there. Took the game, that is to say, emphatically to a suddenly diminished and ineffectual West Ham, who were immensely lucky to hold on to a 2-1 lead that seemed more fragile from minute to minute.

It might be argued that, as are so many things in football, it was all in the mind. To dredge up a relevant cliche, having scored, Wigan plainly began to believe, while West Ham mysteriously ran out of steam. They lost a midfield that they had previously dominated and which now featured the power, precision and technique of Honduras international Wilson Palacios. But for all their possession, all the good football they now played, Wigan found it hard to create concrete chances and so it was that West Ham survived.

Yet in those first 10 minutes, they looked irresistible and Wigan looked fragile in defence to a degree. First, Mark Noble found the French right-winger Julien Faubert who crossed from the right. Dean Ashton, in irresistible early form, pivoted dynamically and whipped in a tremendous right-footed shot on the turn. There was nothing Chris Kirkland could have done about it.

In the 10th minute, after a left-wing corner by Faubert, the ball came to Ashton on the far post and it was 2-0. You wondered then, as Wigan looked increasingly laborious, just how many goals would follow.

In the event, there was none at all, though on 14 minutes, a left-wing cross by Faubert was met by Carlton Cole’s strong header, which Kirkland jumped to turn over the bar. Two minutes more, and Cole, at the other end, was actually heading off his own goalline after a Wigan corner; Wigan’s only attempt of any consequence throughout the half.

Ten minutes after that, Kirkland went down low to take a shot from the new West Ham right-back, Valon Behrami, but the score stayed at 2-0.

Just two minutes later into the second half and it was 2-1. The Wigan left-back Maynor Figueroa took one of his long, searching throws from the left, Emile Heskey, otherwise largely anonymous, flicked it on, and Amr Zaki, the Egyptian international, whipped the ball in with his left foot. He should really have got at least one more, notably on 67 minutes, when another long throw by Figuro gave him an excellent chance that he booted over the bar. Palacios, admired both by his own manager Bruce and West Ham’s Alan Curbishley, had Wigan’s second most significant shot of the second half, a fierce right-footed drive that the West Ham keeper Robert Green soared to turn over the top, but that was as near as Wigan came to what would have been a thoroughly well-merited equaliser.

Afterwards, Bruce said: “We have just given them a doing in their own backyard. That’s what disappointed me. You can’t give two goals away. The second one was pathetic. You can’t expect to come here and score three, though we could and should have done.”

He spoke of how, at the instigation of Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, he signed Palacios for his previous club, Birmingham City, and now he has him profitably at Wigan. He spoke enthusiastically, too, about Zaki: “I thought he could play in the Premiership and you saw it today. He’s took the best chance, his goalscoring record is unbelievable.

“You can see today he had five chances. He needs a little bit more composure. Yes, I know I’ve got a decent team, but as we didn’t defend properly, we came unstuck. We took a long time to recover from the two goals.”

Star man:Wilson Palacios (Wigan)

WEST HAM:Green 7, Behrami 7, Davenport 6, Upson 6, Neill 6, Faubert 7 (Boa Morte 86min), Parker 6 (Mull-ins 72min), Noble 6, Etherington 6, Ashton 7 (Sears 73min), Cole 6

WIGAN: Kirland 7, Melchiot (De Ridder 83min), Scharner (Koumas 83min), Boyce, Figueroa, Valencia, Cattermole 6 (Sibierski 85min). Palacios 8, Kapo, Heskey, Zaki

Referee:S Bennett

Attendance:32,758