Bowyer cancels out Scharner stunner

Scharner looked to have won it when he took off in the penalty area and hooked the ball over his shoulder past a startled Robert Green.

But substitute Bowyer, on for Hayden Mullins, finished crisply two minutes later when fed by fellow sub Luis Boa Morte.

Bobby Zamora made two spectacular misses, skewering one shot across goal for a throw-in and then letting new boy Kieron Dyer's cross run under his foot with only Chris Kirkland to beat in the 21st minute.

Anton Ferdinand's header bounced just wide of a post when he jumped head and shoulders above everybody for Mark Noble's cross.

Full-back George McCartney's stinging shots in the sixth and 37th minutes narrowly cleared Kirkland's crossbar, the second with the aid of a deflection.

Although Antoine Sibierski, with three goals already this season, Jason Koumas and even Scharner showed attacking intentions for Wigan, Emile Heskey was often an isolated figure up front as West Ham began to dominate possession.

Wigan suddenly came to life with a long run by Denny Landzaat and after Julius Aghahowa ran into a defender, the ball ran loose for Koumas, whose low shot grazed the foot of a post as it went behind.

Noble's follow-up shot from his own free-kick 10 minutes into the second half met a similar fate, but then so did Scharner's almost immediately at the other end, before Green pulled off a remarkable instinctive save from substitute Aghahowa, and then saw Mario Melchiot's header go wide.

Hammers boss Alan Curbishley ran out of patience with the misfiring Zamora and sent on Ashton for the last 30 minutes, but it looked a move doomed to failure when the striker had two shots blocked.