Petrov to rescue as City fume at Wiley
WIGAN (1) vs. MANCHESTER CITY (1)
MANCHESTER CITY boss Mark Hughes accused under-fire referee Alan Wiley of missing key decisions after being held by Wigan, but refused to add to criticism of the official’s fitness.
City winger Martin Petrov earned 10-man City a point after Charles N’Zogbia had put the Latics ahead, as the visitors failed to climb back into the top four.
They might have left the DW Stadium with more had Wiley, in his first match since being labelled unfit by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, given a penalty when Shaun Wright-Phillips went down in the Wigan area.
Hughes was adamant about his view of the incident, but was careful not to echo Ferguson, who is today expected to be charged by the Football Association for his comments.
“I thought it was a nailed-on penalty but in fairness to Mr Wiley he was right on the spot and had kept up with play,” said Hughes.
“He had the opportunity to make a good decision but maybe in his defence he thought the defender had knocked the ball into touch when in fact it was Wright-Phillips. It was an obvious penalty but these things happen very fast. I have no criticism of Alan Wiley’s athleticism today.”
N’Zogbia opened the scoring in first half injury time when striker Hugo Rodallega’s shot was parried by City goalkeeper Shay Given, and the former Newcastle winger followed up.
City responded just 63 seconds after the restart when Carlos Tevez set up Petrov to guide a controlled finish past Chris Kirkland.
The visitors’ hopes of taking all three points were dented when right-back Pablo Zabaleta was sent off for a second yellow card.
And after Wright-Phillips’ fruitless tumble Rodallega almost snatched the spoils for the home side, only for Given to pull off a superb late save.