Brave Latics make a point

Photo: Alan Howarth

NOT THIS TIME . . . Latics’ Carl Winchester takes a strike at goal.

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Wigan 0, Athletic 0

IN THIS battle of the modern-day haves and don’t-haves, the club without the parachute payments and multi-million budget did everything but claim an unlikely win.

Wigan’s young chairman David Sharpe set a target of 100 points for his relegated club at the start of the campaign. Small wonder his ambitions are so lofty, with £8million of Premier League legacy cash in his pocket. A slow start has meant Wigan hasn’t quite hit the heights sought by their 24-year-old boss.

But upper crust Wigan still went into this contest with their previous defeat coming 10 games and 21 goals ago. The promotion chase was, and remains, very much on, even if a ton doesn’t. Here though, against relative paupers, it took a quite brilliant save from Jussi Jaaskelainen from Carl Winchester’s blockbusting drive to preserve their clean sheet.

The impressive performance from Athletic wasn’t a fluke. Oldham put their well-heeled counterparts in their place by passing them off the field in the first half and vigorously guarding what they had thereafter.

Despite the poor league position, Athletic’s away record now stands at two defeats (only Walsall can better that) and 12 goals conceded (which only Burton can match). All season, whether under Darren Kelly, David Dunn and now John Sheridan, Athletic have been resolute on the road.

And here, on a relaid pitch, the conditions were conducive to the passing game Sheridan promotes.

The outstanding Matt Palmer went close with a drive that whistled by a post in the second half, Liam Kelly tested Jaaskelainen’s reflexes close to half-time and Rhys Murphy earlier swung and kicked fresh air arriving on to a low cross when Athletic were at the height of their dominance at the DW Stadium.

Athletic could easily have claimed three points - with a little more luck and more composure in the final third. The rest of the plan was executed superbly.

The conundrum Wigan boss Gary Caldwell had to solve was a tricky one. Athletic were so well-marshalled, so quick to everything loose and so in control of the middle third of the field that the neutral unaware of the league standings would have struggled to pick out which side was fighting at which end of the table.

James Wilson was brought in at right-back to use his pace against the blistering quick feet of Yanic Wildschut, with Cameron Dummigan in front of him down the right. The move allowed Dummigan – a confident and skilled player surely destined to play for a long time at a higher level – the freedom to attack and he linked superbly well with Winchester, whose floating role behind main striker Rhys Murphy caused Wigan all sorts of positional problems.

Athletic took the game to their opponents from the off and with a little more care and composure could easily have led by the time Anthony Gerrard hobbled off in the 43rd minute.

Sheridan was forced into several tactical swaps at that stage. Wilson filled the gap at centre-back; Dummigan returned to right-back, with Winchester in front of him; and Rhys Murphy played behind substitute and debut man Aaron Amadi-Holloway.

From that point on Athletic were not quite as dynamic going forward. But neither were Wigan ever able to exert the sort of sustained pressure that made a goal inevitable.

Joel Coleman deserves plenty of credit, though. Hardly tested other than by claiming crosses up to the latter stages of a never less than tactically intriguing game, he was suddenly called up to produce a terrific low stop to deny Will Grigg a 14th goal of the season.

Athletic tried to force a late winner and may have done so had they broken with a little more care to go with the infectious energy. Still, this was a very promising effort ahead of tomorrow’s test at Blackpool.