Wigan Athletic has defeated Reading FC in a Premier League match played at Madejski Stadium on Saturday. Wigan won the match with ease by 3-0. This was only the 6th match won by Wigan in the ongoing Premier League. With this win, Wigan has gone ahead of Aston Villa in the points table. Both Wigan and Villa have 24 points in 27 matches, but, Wigan is ahead on the basis of goal difference. Currently Wigan is at no. 17, while, Villa is at no. 18.
There were a couple of changes in the starting line up of Reading that had played in the last match against Manchester United. Emmerson Boyce returned after missing a lot of matches due to injury. The other player who was brought in was Jimmy Kebe.
The Wigan players looked aggressive right from the start and they created a goal scoring chance in the fifth minute. Franco Di Santo went past three Reading players before blasting the ball towards the net from just inside the penalty area, but, Santo’s shot couldn’t beat the Reading goalie Adam Federici who made a fantastic save.
Wigan continued to create opportunities, but, the goal wasn’t coming for the Latics. They had to wait for 40 odd minutes for the opening goal.
Eventually, it was Arouna Kone who scored the first goal for the Latics. A corner kick went to Gary Caldwell who tried to head the ball into the net, but, he miscued his shot. The ball hit the ground and then, went to Maynor Figueroa who was in the left hand side. The Honduran centre back headed the ball towards Kone who deflected it into the net.
Just a few seconds later, the Latics took a 2-0 lead. It was Kone again who found the net for the second time in the match. This second goal was set up by Jean Beausejour who gave Kone a wonderful cross from the right hand side.
The hosts were looking gutted while coming out of the ground during the half time break. Even after playing well for most parts of the first half, they were down by 0-2.
Reading was off to a poor start in the second half. They got down by 0-3 in the third minute of the second half.
Maynor Figueroa was the one who scored the third goal for Wigan. He got the ball near the half-way line and with a tremendous run; he took the ball near the penalty box before passing it to Franco Di Santo. Santo went past a couple of Reading defenders and then, passed the ball to Figueroa again who beat the Reading goalie with a great finish.
That proved to be the last goal scored in the match. The hosts couldn’t find the net even once and thus, lost the match.
Wigan will play against Liverpool in its next match at the DW Stadium on 2nd of March.