BARGAIN-BUYCaleb Folan condemned Manchester City to a fourth consecutive Premiership defeat and put Wigan tantalisingly close to survival. The �500,000 transfer-window arrival from Chesterfield nodded home the first-half winner to continue a revival which seems certain to preserve Wigan's top-flight status.

With Charlton drawing at Watford, Wigan are now eight points above the drop zone, having leapt over City, who have slumped to fourth bottom and whose league season is in freefall. Stuart Pearce's men may have two games in hand on their relegation rivals, but they have the entire top four still to play.

And, though an FA Cup quarter-final with Blackburn awaits next weekend, it is probably going to be the failings of others that keeps afloat a club who can ill-afford a financially catastrophic drop, having posted a �7.1million six-month loss earlier this week.

Getting booed off is sadly becoming a regular occurrence for Pearce. On their showing here, the negative reaction was totally justified.

Quite frankly, the Blues were abysmal. Virtually devoid of any shape, they lacked ideas and inspiration and totally failed to find any method of combating Folan and Emile Heskey. The goal, when it came early in the first half, was endemic of their current plight. Richard Dunne could only head a ball into the box high into the air and, as the City defence stood and watched, Folan pounced to nod home from five yards.