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Reading F.C. vs. Wigan Athletic F.C.
Date: Saturday 21st December 2013
Venue: The Madejski Stadium
Score: 1-2
After a mid-week wash-out at Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan Athletic overcame a Reading side who had lost only once at home previous to this game.
Chris McCann opened the scoring in the 10th minute as he hit the ball from 15 yards to put the Latics ahead.
Then, just two minutes later, Nick Powell doubled their lead after he pounced on a defensive mistake and slotted past flailing ‘keeper, Alex McCarthy.
Although, Pavel Pogrebnyak pulled one back for Reading with 20 minutes to go, there was nothing that the Royals could do to deny a revitalised Wigan side a second successive win.
It took Wigan only 10 minutes to score their first goal as James McArthur played a ball to James McClean who then crossed to McCann in acres of space. McCann simply had to place the ball in the net from 15 yards.
Two minutes later it went from bad to worse for Reading when Powell took advantage of a mistake by Alex Pearce and beat McCarthy with a low shot.
After a dominant half hour for the Latics, Reading fought their way back into the game and began to create more and more chances. Pogrebnyak forced Ali Al-Habsi, back in the Wigan goal after injury, to make a good save before Kaspars Gorkss saw a header go over the bar from a corner.
Early in the second half, Reading were given a golden opportunity to get a goal back in the form of a penalty. Billy Sharp smacked the spot kick over the bar leaving the score at 2-0 to the Latics.
However, Pogrebnyak ensure a nervy last 20 minutes for Wigan as he headed home from 6 yards. Reading then pushed on to find an equaliser but the Latics were able to weather the storm and leave the Madejski with three deserved points.
Wigan Athletic, under Uwe Rosler, are brilliant to watch and work as hard as they can in order to get the result that they want. The fitness is not there yet but if Wigan can kill a team off in the first half an hour of a match then it does not matter! Exciting times are ahead for the Latics!