Doncaster Rover vs. Wigan Athletic - The Match Report

Doncaster Rovers vs. Wigan Athletic

Date: Saturday 18^th January 2014

Venue: The Keepmoat Stadium

Referee: Keith Hill

Score: 3-0

Wigan Athletic’s superb unbeaten run under Uwe Rosler came to an end as they failed to turn up and lost 3-0 against relegation threatened Doncaster Rovers.

Chris Brown opened the scoring after just 6 minutes as he latched onto the end of a Paul Keegan cross.

Doncaster then scored their second after a goalmouth scramble in which the Wigan defence looked shaky. James Coppinger eventually put the ball into the net.

After 69 minutes, Doncaster put the game beyond the Latics as Brown scored his second of the day from the penalty spot. Tyias Browning clumsily fouled James Husband in the box to concede the penalty.

Both teams started the game well and were looking to attack when given the chance. But Wigan were made to pay for some terrible defending as Paul Keegan was given too much time to get his cross into the box and Chris Brown was left unmarked at the back post to put the Rovers in front.

Despite this setback, Wigan continued to attack and Nicky Maynard had a shot tipped over by Ross Turnbull.

Soon after, Nick Powell should have put Wigan level as he found himself through on goal after a perfectly placed ball from Jordi Gomez. Unfortunately for the 1500 travelling Latics’ fans, he chipped the ball over the bar.

Wigan came out after the break and looked determined to get themselves back in the game and earned a couple of corner kicks but this was all short-lived.

In the 52^nd minute Coppinger scored Doncaster’s second goal after a goalmouth scramble that saw Ali Al-Habsi save a close range shot from Ritchie Wellens before Coppinger slid the ball through Al-Habsi’s legs and into the net.

After this goal, the Latics offered little attacking wise and more dodgy defending, this time from Tyias Browning, saw Doncaster win a penalty which Brown coolly slotted home, even if Al-Habsi almost got a hand to it.

Wigan simply did not turn up and were not brilliant from beginning to end. But a big problem has to be the fact that Rosler is playing midfielders as defenders despite there being a couple of recognised defenders in the squad. This means that the opposition keep getting behind our defence and are creating chances which could be avoided.