Wigan steal home after Kirkland's superb display

"Chairmen don't get managers the sack," Sir Bobby Robson once exclaimed. "Players do". If Tony Mowbray is relegated with West Bromwich, the club the grand old man once played for, this is one of the moments he will look back on and count the individual errors that damned his team to defeat in a game they should have won comfortably.

Had Chris Kirkland not shown the form that confirmed the opinion of his manager Steve Bruce that he is the best goalkeeper in England, West Brom would have done so by at least three clear goals.

"We've got away with murder," said one elderly spectator as he prepared to make his way home through the November chill. West Bromwich only had themselves to blame. "They will feel robbed and rightly so but the crucial thing in this Premier League is that when you get your chances you have to stick them in the back of the net," Bruce said. "We have ourkeeper to thank. For me the turning point was when James Morrison runs through, Kirkland produces a great save and then we go up the other end and score."

In a touch of irony, West Bromwich had taken the lead from perhaps the day's most blatant error. Given their reputation for pure, passing football, the surprise was that it came from a long punt upfield. That Titus Bramble should have failed to bring the ball under control was less astonishing.

Bramble is a talented, sometimes surprisingly elegant, defender but if you wanted his epitaph you could do worse than quote from Tony Hancock's suicide note: "Things kept going wrong too many times." After Ishmael Miller dispossessed him and drove the ball between Kirkland's gloves and his post, Bramble stood hands on hips almost willing the fog that was seeping through the stadium to swallow him whole.

His embarrassment was not to last, partly because Kirkland made four outstanding saves – one from Jonas Olsson's header was at point-blank range – and partly because West Bromwich committed two errors and were punished for each.

Had Paul Robinson not produced a weak back-header, Henri Camara would not have had the opportunity to seize upon it brilliantly for his second goal in a week.

Had Scott Carson not fumbled the ball across the line for a corner, there would have been no opportunity for Emmerson Boyce to head home. In a table in which points are awarded for attractive, attacking football, West Bromwich Albion are challenging for Europe. In the real thing they are staring glassy-eyed at relegation.

Attendance: 17,054

Referee: Phil Dowd

Man of the match: Kirkland

Match rating: 7/10