CAVALIERS to the end, there is something unquestionably heroic about Tony Mowbray’s West Bromwich Albion. Unable to defend to save their lives, the Baggies attacked without cessation, and for once it paid off as Wigan’s inability to finish, and a quite brilliant performance from their veteran goalkeeper Dean Kiely, combined to give Albion a victory which keeps alive their hopes of playing Premier League football next season.

“Unlike some teams, I genuinely don’t think there’s been a period this season that we’ve played with fear, and we’ll continue to play open, flowing football,” insisted Mowbray. “It was a bit of a risk to take on Wigan in such an expansive manner, but we backed ourselves to win the shoot-out. We haven’t always got the rewards we’ve deserved in the last couple of months, but we did today.”

As his opposite number Steve Bruce pointed out, however, they wouldn’t have if the Latics had put away just a couple of the chances they created during a first half in which the home crowd closed their eyes every time the ball went near the Albion penalty area. “Finishing is our Achilles heel at the moment,” said the Wigan manager, and the problem was glaringly highlighted during an extraordinary opening 20 minutes, at the end of which the score was 1-1, but might easily have been 3-3.

Hugo Rodallega, the Colombian signed by Bruce for £4.5m in January to replace Emile Heskey, had already wasted two good openings when Albion went ahead in the eighth minute. Gianni Zuiverloon’s run into the Wigan penalty area was picked out by Chris Brunt, and though Chris Kirkland saved the full-back’s powerful angled drive, Marc-Antoine Fortune was on hand to nod in the rebound. To rub salt in the wound, Kirkland injured himself in the process and had to come off.

Wigan should have equalised within a minute, and would have done were it not for Kiely, himself making a rare start in place of the injured Scott Carson. Having pulled off a fine diving save from Paul Scharner’s shot, Kiely instantly got to his feet and twice reacted brilliantly and bravely to prevent Olivier Kapo driving in the loose ball.

Still the chances came. Juan Carlos Menseguez seemed certain to put Albion two clear when his turn in the Wigan penalty area left him with only Kirkland’s substitute Richard Kingson to beat, but the Ghana international dived to his left to save. Instead, and somewhat fortunately, it was Wigan who got back on terms. Rodallega’s shooting had been nothing to write home to South America about, and nor was it when he hit a 25-yard free kick in the 17th minute, but the ball struck Brunt in the wall and slid past Kiely before the wrong-footed veteran could recover.

The quieter period that followed was more down to both teams desperately needing to catch their breath than the game settling into a pattern. As half-time approached, Rodallega fired over, Kingson got down well to block Fortune’s near-post effort, and the 38-year-old Kiely again excelled, saving with his feet when Antonio Valencia beat the offside trap.

Kiely kept his team on terms after the break too, saving superbly from Mario Melchiot, though from six yards the Dutchman should not have given him a chance. At the other end Kingson flung himself to his right to beat away a Jonathan Greening shot, and given the way things were going, it was no surprise when he also saved Brunt’s penalty, awarded after Titus Bramble clumsily tripped Fortune. Having made the save, however, Kingson was unlucky; the ball bounced straight back to Brunt, who had all the time he needed to lash it into the empty net.

The game continued to swing between penalty areas, but with 15 minutes remaining Fortune made it safe, driving the ball past Kingson with the help of another deflection off Scharner.

Joyous though the celebrations at the final whistle were, it was still possible to sense a fatalism behind the cavorting. Hull obligingly keep losing, but Albion’s next game is against Liverpool, and on this evidence, and assuming Rafa Benitez’s team still have something to play for, the chances of Albion getting anything from the game appear remote. As Mowbray said, however, Albion will be fighting.

Star man: Dean Kiely (West Brom).

Yellow cards: West Brom: Greening, Valero.

Referee: P Walton

Attendance: 24,741

WEST BROM: Kiely 9, Zuiverloon 6, Martis 5, Olsson 5, Cech 6 (Donk 75min), Brunt 7, Dorrans 6 (Mulumbu 54min, 6), Greening 6, Valero 7, Menseguez 6 (Simpson 86min), Fortune 7.

WIGAN: Kirkland 6 (Kingson 9min, 8), Melchiot 5, Bramble 5, Scharner 7, Figueroa 6, Valencia 6, Cattermole 5, Brown 6, N’Zogbia 5 (Zaki 70min, De Ridder 81min), Kapo 6, Rodallega 6.