West Brom 2 Wigan 3 - Match analysis and pictures

Everything was set up for a day of fun on Saturday as Baggies fans gathered for their penultimate home game of the season.

There were banners and songs to celebrate Wolves' predictable pre-match demise and Steve Clarke's team responded by performing with real style for much of the opening half.

Even a Wigan equaliser out of nowhere barely dampened the spirits of the Albion faithful, who immediately turned their humour on their other great rivals, Villa.

It seemed to be a day guaranteed to end happily for Baggies supporters, irrespective of the result against the Latics.

And then Odemwingie got involved.

When the Nigeria international was sent to warm up ahead of a possible substitute mission, his side were drawing 2-2 but pushing for a winner, with the mood inside the stadium upbeat and optimistic.

His spat with Baggies fans transformed the atmosphere, and an afternoon that seemed certain to conclude with smiles and jokes ended with friction and hostility.

Suddenly, the humour and hopefulness of an hour or so earlier seemed like a distant memory. We will never know for certain whether the change of mood contributed to Albion's unlikely defeat.

But it cannot have helped the hosts, who twice surrendered hard-earned leads before succumbing to Callum McManaman's late winner at a time when off-the-field recriminations had taken precedence over on-the-pitch events.

It is tough to believe only 15 months have passed since the high point of Odemwingie's Albion career when a Molineux hat-trick looked set to propel him to legendary status.

On the day when the slide he helped to trigger took Wolves into League One, the forward's relationship with Baggies fans hit a new low and left his long-term position at the club looking utterly untenable.

Through errors of judgement on both sides of the argument, Odemwingie has become a figure so divisive that his head coach admitted on Saturday night he was reluctant to put him on the pitch.

A man who remains often charming and personable around the corridors of the Baggies training ground has become a toxic presence through catastrophic mistakes and a chain of events that were allowed to take on a life of their own.

And the problem was so acute on Saturday it turned a happy stadium into an angry one. There were few hints about the acrimony that lay ahead when the Baggies had the better of a low-key opening period, while their supporters rejoiced in their near-neighbours' relegation.

They were helped by a smart Ben Foster save from Arouna Kone but, by and large, the hosts moved the ball well and went ahead before the half-hour mark through an incisive team move. Claudio Yacob started it with a solid challenge on former Baggies favourite Paul Scharner.

Graham Dorrans and Romelu Lukaku combined to feed Markus Rosenberg and the Swede, with his first significant contribution in a Baggies shirt, produced an excellent run and an even better cross for Shane Long to open the scoring.

The visitors equalised with a bolt from the blue before half-time as Kone headed home Jean Beausejour's cross, but even that goal had home fans looking on the bright side as it potentially turned up the heat on Villa in the battle for survival.

Gareth McAuley followed up his player-of-the-season honours by heading home a Graham Dorrans free-kick five minutes into the second half.

But Wigan's traditional end-of-season spirit showed itself again as some sloppy Albion defending allowed substitute James McArthur to head home a cross from the outstanding Shaun Maloney.

And then things changed.

While warming up on the touchline, Odemwingie went to chat with his wife and son, reacted to a comment from a nearby fan and prompted jeers and chants from the wider fanbase.

They might have had penalties when Jerome Thomas's cross hit the arm of Emerson Boyce, and when Roger Espinoza bundled Billy Jones to the ground, and visiting keeper Joel Robles pulled off late saves from Dorrans and McAuley.

But the mood was now fractious and the transformation was complete when Maloney crossed again and McManaman converted from close range. It was the final, painful twist on an afternoon that turned sour, thanks to a gaping wound that looks unlikely to heal.

Steve Madeley