Wigan Athletic 1-0 Burton Albion: Latics claim scrappy victory to move into top half

Wigan Athletic picked up a desperately scrappy 1-0 home victory over Burton Albion to move into the top half of League One.

The only goal arrived four minutes before half-time, when Wigan striker Christian Saydee drilled the ball towards the far post and it went in off team-mate Paul Mullin and an unsuspecting Burton defender.

From then on, it was attack against defence, with Burton hitting the bar through Jake Beesley, who also headed just wide, and Wigan goalkeeper Sam Tickle making two magnificent saves in the final quarter.

The result extends Wigan’s unbeaten run to eight matches and sees them climb into the top half of the table.

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Work in progress

“We do like to play the beautiful game, and the gaffer has had success at his previous clubs playing fantastic football,” said assistant manager Graham Barrow, who took media duties with Ryan Lowe feeling ‘under the weather’.

“But it’s all a work in progress at the moment.

“We played top of the league (Stevenage) on Saturday and were probably the better team, and didn’t get our just rewards.

“Tonight we didn’t quite hit that level, but we’ve managed to hold on for the three points against a team with a very experienced manager.

“We knew Gary would come with a plan to really frustrate us, and they did make it tough for us. He is a very good manager and he has that in his back pocket.

“So we’re very pleased to win the game and move up into the top half of the table.”

Barrow revealed Lowe was not the only Wigan man to be laid low, with midfielder Callum Wright ruled out of the squad with the same bug.

“The gaffer has just been feeling a bit under the weather with a bit of a bug,” added Barrow. “Hopefully he’s managed to nip it in the bud, because obviously we’ve got another big game on Saturday in the FA Cup.

“We don’t want it to spread any more than it has already… hopefully we’ll be all right.”

Match action

It took fully 40 minutes for anything of any note to occur at either end.

Matt Smith – back in the Wigan side after suspension – threaded through a lovely ball to Mullin, who crossed to Fraser Murray, whose shot was blocked.

Murray, however, immediately took a quick throw-in to release Saydee, whose drilled shot found the back of the net after touches by the lunging Mullin and an unsuspecting defender on the goal-line.

Credit to Burton — they grew into the game after the break and almost equalised when substitute Dylan Williams swung in a corner midway through the second half, with Beesley heading it just beyond the far post.

The visitors came even closer four minutes later when Williams sent over a free-kick that Beesley connected with at the near post, only for the ball to loop over Wigan shotstopper Tickle and come back off the crossbar.

And Wigan were indebted to their keeper in the closing stages for making fine saves to deny both Kyran Lofthouse and Terence Vancooten.

Frustration

Brewers boss Gary Bowyer struggled to conceal his deep disappointment afterwards.

“There’s a lot of frustration in the dressing room because of the efforts of the players in the second half,” admitted Bowyer.

“In the first half, I didn’t think there was much in the game at all. We didn’t contribute much to it either.

“It was a bit of a non-event, but we got undone by some sloppy play by us, which resulted in a goal.

“We know what Saydee is all about and we’ve let ourselves down on that.

“Having found ourselves 1-0 down, we really went about it well in the second half. I was pleased with the energy, the attitude and the response.

“It was chalk and cheese in terms of the performance, we’ve created all the chances, we’ve hit the bar and their goalkeeper’s made a couple of unbelievable saves at the end.

“I thought we deserved a point from the game at the very least, and we’ve got to continue that now.

“That’s what we told them in there at the end, we were too passive in the first half and it’s cost us.”

READ MORE: Wigan Athletic 0-0 Stevenage: Lowly Latics make a point against Boro