Wigan Athletic 1-0 West Bromwich Albion: Josh Windass strike halts Baggies' unbeaten run
- Published
Jake Livermore is shown his first yellow card at Wigan - he would receive a second late on as West Bromwich Albion ended the game with 10 men
Josh Windass ended West Bromwich Albion's seven-game unbeaten run to lift Wigan Athletic up to seventh in the Championship.
Summer signing Windass got the only goal 16 minutes from time.
Latching onto Nick Powell's knockdown from Latics goalkeeper Christian Walton's long clearance, he accelerated, then veered to his right past the last defender to drill low right-footed past Sam Johnstone.
Albion would have regained top spot with a point or better but failed to score in the league for only the second time this season.
Only a string of fine saves from Johnstone prevented Wigan winning by more and Albion ended with 10 men as Jake Livermore was sent off for a second yellow card late on.
After a free-scoring few weeks, this defeat would have acted as a timely reminder to Albion that promotion back to the Premier League will not be straightforward.
Paul Cook's Wigan proudly protected their own undefeated sequence - they have not lost in the league at the DW Stadium since February - and were unfortunate not to win by more.
Despite hamstring injuries keeping out Latics attackers Will Grigg and Michael Jacobs, they created several chances and limited Albion - by far the Championship's top scorers - to just one shot on target.
Albion's front duo of Dwight Gayle (eight) and Jay Rodriguez (seven) had scored more than Wigan's team (14) combined this season - but Windass levelled that statistic.
The Latics dominated a feisty game that featured nine bookings, including Livermore's pair of yellows, and Windass was denied three times by Johnstone before opening the scoring.
Johnstone also twice denied Gary Roberts, while Albion's best chance of rescuing a point saw Ahmed Hegazi's header hit the side netting late on.
Wigan boss Paul Cook told BBC Radio Manchester:
"I'm just pleased with the performance, no matter how the game goes. As a manager I'm very much into how we perform.
"It comes on the back of the break and the worst performance under me at Preston, and it hurt. But the lads have shown what they're all about. They bounced back excellently. Everything about them was good.
"We came up against a really good West Brom side. They're in such good form, free-scoring, such a good style of play. They open you up and we had to be in tune.
"We defended really well, we were organised and always carried a threat going forward. We deserved to win but West Brom will get to where they want to be in the end."
West Bromwich Albion boss Darren Moore told BBC WM:
"We were in bits and pieces. It was stop start really. For the first 25 minutes we played really well, started brightly, and as they grew into it, they restructured their game plan and grew more and more into the game.
"It was a physical battle, and both teams were at it. Wigan were very good in their work rate off the ball, defended well as a team and also went up against us.
"The game was evenly balanced from that aspect, but the all-important chance fell to them and they stuck it away. It was a poor goal in our aspect,
"We were better off the ball in terms of nullifying areas, but you're never happy after a defeat."
