Waking up to immense speculation about Dowie's future wasn't as much of a surprise as was the new name in defence. Having secured his signature in time to play, defender Matt Hudson on loan from Fulham took the place of appalling N'Diwa and became an instant hit. Holden moved out to right-wing back to take over from unconvincing Clegg and Haining returned as he struggles with injury niggles.
Despite what fans hoped to be an improved defence, it had to be assumed that this would be another rough rearguard that was extremely prone to mistakes. It was, and eventually one of them proved to be costly inparticular as a collectively poor backline allowed Rougier to tap home a simple winner. Pogi lacked the necessary quality to thwart the striker when failing to fully commit himself.
Even so, the Latics had many other opportunities to curtail the Bee's sting, of which was often painless. That they failed and then visibly shrunk after a missed penalty spoke volumes for a side fearing whatever might be around the corner - a poor season, maybe; a loss of manager, quite possibly and more likely.
This game was far from spectacular, nor entertaining. Flashes of near-misses were rare, mainly due to good crosses going to waste through a lack of an attacker's deadly instinct. Had the strikers been more clinical, then the defences would never had stood up to it. Indeed, this was so on 14 as after Haining looked ropey and ended up hacking Rougier down just outside the box. Haining picked up a deserved yellow and from the free-kick, Pogi was called upon to claw out a superb Somner effort. From the resultant corner, everyone seemed to freeze as Hutchinson narrowly headed over and instantly you could see that the Latics defence looked leaky.
Upfront however, the Latics did seem to have more purpose than their hosts. And on 17, the visitors broke the deadlock with a goal from some ghastly defending. From a throw-in, level with the edge of the box, the ball was allowed to bounce straight through to the back post for Holden. Probably not believing his luck, the Latics wing-back stooped low to nod back past the keeper and into the far corner. 1-0.
Dowie's men had taken a somewhat fortunate lead and now they had to look to build on it. This became a problem though and as Brentford gained more possession, their long ball tactic kept pushing the Blues back. This lead to few chances and much of a muchness developing in midfield. Entertainment value was at zero, but eventually the half did find some life minutes before the halftime break.
As the Latics seemed unable to get the ball down and play football, their increasing wayward passing gifted Brentford much possession and on 42, they worked a rare corner out of the Latics. Eyres stood around the near post to defend and as he did, the Latics captain called for team-mates to watch for diagonal, near-post runners. Everyone failed to do so and that allowed Hutchinson far too much space to run into and send a bullet header past Pogi, despite his outstretched hand getting a touch on it. 1-1.
Immediately from the re-start the visitors attacked Brentford and a great angled ball sent Eyres in behind. One on one with Jones, the Latics winger aimed for goal but saw it rebound off the stoppers knees.
After a lively 5 minutes to end the 1st, the 2nd half picked up with more of the same. Immediately there were chances for either side as Eyres volleyed over from the edge of the box and Rougier tested Pogi with a daisycutter. Seconds ticked by and it was the Latics again on the offensive as a Murray ball sent Eyres through. From the corner edge of the box, his angled drive beat Jones but came back off a post.
It had become tit-for-tat and the Bees were next to respond with a great chance. Darren Sheridan summed up a poor display as first he lost possession in the middle, then he followed up with a woeful tackle which Rougier did well to stay on his feet from. His honesty almost paid dividends as he sprinted clear but his shot across Pogi saw the Latics keeper pull off a great point-blank, full-stretched, one-hand save.
True to the run of the game now, it was the visitors turn to reply with a chance. And that they did after their best move for some time saw Eyres squeeze in between defenders and volley over Jones. His lob clearly beat the keeper but had a touch too much and clipped the top of the crossbar. An agonising miss.
The lively start failed to let up and on 58, the next devastating blow arrived. Some poor defending allowed Rougier to latch onto a long ball and tap in past Pogi from 8 yards. Not one defender had the sense to cut the ball out and as Pogi appeared to have gathered it, he stopped, hesitated and woefully watched the hosts striker prod it past him. 1-2.
Despite the set-back the Latics now looked the stronger and it was Brentford who called upon some desperate defending. Indeed, on 67, six-foot-many-inches Sonko took it too far as he hitched a ride on Curier's back and flattened him. A definite penalty, but who was to take wasn't so definite. Curier, obviously thinking more about his goal tally than the Latics, grabbed the ball and placed it on the spot. Eyres grabbed it back, re-spotted it and then an awkward moment between the two occurred before Curier got the message. It was enough to unnerve Eyres as his slumped shoulders said it all before running up and placing a low, weak and central effort straight into Jones' arms.
The penalty miss turned out to be crucial for the visitors as after it, they look visibly drained and seemed void of ideas. Brentford did need some nervous defending still in the final 20 minutes, but that came more through their own inadequacies than through the Latics probing. Indeed, Eyre got the same treatment on 88 as Curier did for the earlier penalty, but this time Sonko got away with it.
In the end, the Latics had little left in the tank to level and Murray summed up some woeful performances on 90, as he won possession on the Latics box, took an age to think about punting it forward and after much hesitation hit his clearance straight at a Brentford player. That set the Bees up on an attack and as Murray chased the ball to make up for his error, he hacked down the man in possession to pick up a reckless yellow card. Simply irresponsible and simply not good enough.
To sum up, it's fair enough to accept that an ever changing defence is going to get it wrong, but when players like Murray, Shez and Pog's get the basics drastically wrong then it is time to worry. Dowie has conjured up many miracles for this club - now the "established" players must do so or else we are heading for real trouble. This season, we all know it is not about glory but about pride and keeping the side in Division 2. The question is, with promotion not the aim are the "established" players hungry enough now? I'm beginning to wonder.