Two goals in three minutes from Hugo Rodallega and Charles N'Zogbia just before half-time had given Latics a deserved 2-0 interval lead.

And two more goals in the second half from substitutes Michael Brown and Jason Scotland certainly did not flatter the visitors, with former Latic Neil Mellor pulling back a consolation for North End on 87 minutes.

After two draws and two defeats from their four pre-season friendlies, Latics were quickly into their stride and a lovely move involving N'Zogbia and Gomez was halted by Liam Chilvers, with Rodallega hooking the rebound wide of the upright.

Gomez was then given too much time amnd space on the edge of the penalty area, and his stinging drive was helped over by Wayne Henderson at the expense of a corner.

On 10 minutes, N'Zogbia cut in from the right wing and his goalbound effort was deflected over by Chilvers.

Two minutes later, though, Wigan had a major scare when Eddie Nolan's cross was scuffed home by Stephen Elliott, although the referee's assistant had his flag up for offside.

The game was never likely to be much of a 'friendly' given the rivalry between the two clubs, and Lee Cattermole and Hendry Thomas in particular were getting stuck into the home midfield.

Thomas was particularly lucky to escape a yellow card on the 15-minute mark when he almost cut North End full-back Nolan in half, although the slippy surface probably made the lunge look worse than it was.

Latics threatened again when N'Zogbia found himself free down the right but, instead of pulling the trigger, he elected to try to feed Rodallega and the defence cleared.

Thomas was then given a dose of his own medicine when Darren Carter felled him in similarly brutal fashion, before Latics seized control of the game with two quickfire strikes.

First, Cattermole sprayed a beautiful ball out to N'Zogbia on the right, and his inswinging cross was headed powerfully home by Rodallega.

Then N'Zogbia again found space in the inside right channel, and beat Henderson all ends up on his near post to make it 2-0.

Thomas and Carter then clashed again in midfield, and this time the Wigan man did not escape yellow from referee Graham Salisbury.

However, the Honduran showed he can play as well, almost making it three with a stinging drive right on half-time that escaped the clutches of Henderson only to trickle wide of the upright.

Martinez again made wholesale changes at the break, six in total, and a magnificent move involving two of them, Scotland and Rachid Bouaouzan, resulted in another, Brown, side-footing home number three.

Scotland was showing some nice touches on his debut, and on the hour mark he played in his former Swansea colleague Gomez, who slid the ball past substitute goalkeeper Andy Lonergan but agonisingly past the far post.

Gomez then fired over when well-placed and Paul Scharner headed against a post from Bouaouzan's corner before number four arrived 21 minutes from time.

Lonergan spilled Brown's 30-yard drive into the path of Scotland, who slammed home the rebound to the delight of the travelling army in the Bill Shankly Kop.

And Mellor's late strike from Chris Sedgwick's cross did little to spoil the jubiliant Wigan supporters' evening.

North End: Henderson (Lonergan, 45); Hart, Trotman, Chilvers, Nolan (Davidson, 62); Nicholson, Carter, Jones, Wallace (Sedgwick, 45); Brown (Parkin, 62), Elliott (Mellor, 62).
Subs: Chaplow, Hawley.

Latics: Kirkland; Melchiot, Boyce, Bramble (Scharner, 45), Figueroa (Edman, 45); De Ridder (Cho, 45), Thomas (Brown, 45), Cattermole (Watson, 70), Gomez, N'Zogbia (Bouaouzan, 45); Rodallega (Scotland, 45).
Subs: Pollitt, Kupisz, Cywka, Routledge, Holt.

Referee: Graham Salisbury (Preston).

Attendance 3,645.

For match reaction and photographs see Wednesday's Wigan Evening Post.