Gomez recovered from the tackle to score the opening goal mid-way through the second half with a stunning set-piece, before Hugo Rodallega sealed a comfortable victory for the Latics late on.
As if all that were not bad enough, another discouraging piece of news comes from America West, a mid-sized airline that the government rescued last year.
That wasn't hard, considering he served in the chamber for 46 of his 76 years, has chaired two major committees, and has played a major or minor role in nearly every piece of significant social welfare or health legislation since the mid-1960s.
It made me wonder whether, in covering the campaign for the by-election in Mid Ulster due one week later, a reporter could get away with a piece to camera explaining that "the stakes could hardly be any lower".
The 40ft (12m) piece of wreckage was salvaged from the Team Philips super-yacht which was hit by a freak mid-Atlantic storm during a round-the-world race.