Wigan Athletic vs. Blackpool - The Match Report

Wigan Athletic vs. Blackpool

Date: Saturday 26th April 2014

Venue: The DW Stadium

Referee: Andy D’Urso

Score: 0-2

A third defeat in four games saw Wigan Athletic drop to sixth in the table and their play-off place is looking precarious as they need three points from their last two games.

Wigan, who were poor from beginning to end, missed a first half penalty as Matt Gilks made a good save from Martyn Waghorn.

With half an hour to go, the tangerines were 1-0 up as Andy Keogh headed into the Wigan net from an Isaiah Osbourne cross.

Blackpool then finished the Latics off with a low shot from Stephen Dobbie and this win takes his side out of the bottom three.

Wigan were always likely to cause Blackpool problems and it was Shaun Maloney who won a penalty for the Latics early on in the game.

Maloney was fouled in the box by Tony McMahon and up stepped Waghorn to take the spot kick. Waghorn, who has scored five goals since joining Wigan in January, placed the penalty to Gilks’ left. Gilks pulled off a smart save to deny Waghorn and kept the scores level at half-time.

Blackpool had set up in a way similar to Millwall when they visited the DW Stadium a few weeks ago. The score on that day was 1-0 to Millwall and Wigan would have done well to remember that result as the tangerines came out after the break and played a similar style of football.

The visitors attempted to push up on Wigan early in the second half and their hard work paid off as Andy Keogh was allowed a free header six yards from the goal due to some sloppy defending from Emmerson Boyce. 1-0 Blackpool.

It was going to be an uphill struggle for the Latics now as they attempted to gain something from the game.

Wigan’s sloppy play, in particular their sloppy midfield, allowed Blackpool to break on them and goal scorer turned provider as Keogh ran the ball to the touchline and crossed into the box for the unmarked Dobbie to place into the net from twelve yards.

Disappointing from Wigan. An absolute shambles from Uwe Rosler.

The 4,000 strong Blackpool following left the DW Stadium in good spirits as their great escape looks to be on.

However, Wigan Athletic have been poor in recent weeks and deserved to be beaten by a team in the bottom three on the day. Let’s hope that the Latics can pull an extremely good performance out of the bag on Tuesday night as they visit Birmingham, who haven’t won at home in seventeen games.

Three points is all Wigan need to ensure their season continues for at least two more games.