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Wigan Athletic vs. Leeds United
Date: Saturday 5th April 2014
Venue: The DW Stadium
Referee: Neil Swarbrick
Score: 1-0
Wigan Athletic took another step towards securing a Championship play-off place as they defeated a determined Leeds United side 1-0 on Saturday.
Wigan, who have been so good at home under Uwe Rosler, went ahead after half an hour through Martyn Waghorn; Waghorn scoring from twenty yards past Jack Butland.
It took the Latics, who have not lost at home in the league under Uwe Rosler, twenty-three minutes to have their first shot at goal. Jordi Gomez found himself in space and his shot from twenty-five yards went just wide of the Leeds post.
The game was severely lacking in chances and Leeds barely troubled Ali Al-Habsi in the Wigan net, whilst Butland wasn’t troubled either.
However, after thirty-three minutes Wigan were ahead. James McArthur won the ball midway inside the Leeds half, drove forward towards the Leeds penalty area, and lost the ball. The stray ball was hit with power towards goal by Waghorn and just squeezed inside the post. Butland’s goalkeeping was questionable as he seemed to get a full hand to the ball.
This goal did nothing to help the state of the game, and the remainder of the first half was played out with very little excitement.
The Latics came out after the break with intention and Perch had a powerful shot deflected over the cross bar within fifteen seconds of the restart.
Leeds attempted to push up on Wigan in order to get an equaliser but their attacks just weren’t strong enough or effective enough to penetrate the Latics’ defence.
Similar to the first half, there wasn’t much in the way of chances except a Waghorn free-kick which flew just over the bar, and a James McClean shot which was straight at the keeper.
Under Rosler, Wigan have managed to acquire the skill of playing below par but grinding out a result, they did it against Bolton last week and they did it against Leeds this week. The Latics will fancy their chances against Millwall on Tuesday night before an F.A. Cup Semi-Final with Arsenal at the weekend.