Huddersfield Town vs Wigan Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
The John Smith's StadiumAttendance17,941.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Huddersfield and Wigan at the John Smith's Stadium as Callum Lang netted late on to earn victory for the Latics on Tuesday night.
Tuesday 13 September 2022 23:19, UK
Huddersfield's miserable start to the Sky Bet Championship season continued with a 2-1 home defeat to Wigan.
Will Keane put Wigan in front with a first-half penalty and, after Tom Lees equalised, Callum Lang fired in the winner in the 82nd minute.
Before kick-off, there was an immaculately-observed minute's silence in memory of the Queen, followed by the national anthem.
That ensured an emotional mood inside the stadium in the opening exchanges, which both sets of players appeared to thrive on.
Huddersfield should have taken the lead in the 18th minute after creating a gilt-edged opportunity down the Wigan left.
Duane Holmes got to the byline and crossed for the unmarked Danny Ward, who could only fire way over the bar from eight yards.
A loose touch from Thelo Aasgaard almost let Ward in, only for Curtis Tilt to race across and get his team-mate out of a hole.
Wigan then settled into their stride and, after Keane had sent a flick wide of a post, they took the lead midway through the first half.
Lang got the wrong side of Luke Mbete, who only succeeded in felling his opponent as he lunged for the ball.
Referee Jeremy Simpson produced a yellow card and Keane smashed the spot-kick into the roof of the net.
Lang had a great chance to make it 2-0 when he headed straight at Lee Nicholls from James McClean's cross.
Wigan picked up where they left off after half-time, with an unmarked Jack Whatmough somehow heading against a post from a corner, only three yards out.
The visitors then thought they had a second penalty when Lang was again felled in the area, but this time the official booked him for simulation.
Lang then squandered a golden opportunity to double the lead, taking the ball too wide in rounding Nicholls and losing the chance
At this point, a second goal for Wigan looked inevitable, but, from out of nowhere and after a succession of substitutions, Huddersfield came firing back.
Jack Rudoni tested Jamie Jones from 30 yards before Yuta Nakayama blazed over the bar from 10 yards out.
A Nakayama free-kick was brilliantly saved by Jones, with Tilt then clearing the ball off his own line to deny Ward.
The respite was only temporary, however, as the ball was played back in for Lees to finally get Town on the scoresheet with 15 minutes remaining.
Seconds later Jordan Rhodes hit the Wigan bar with a thunderous drive before Jones again saved superbly to deny Pat Jones.
But, as a second Town goal looked only a matter of time, this time it was Wigan that produced a goal out of nowhere with eight minutes left.
McClean's cross from the left was controlled by Lang, who protected the ball from a couple of home defenders before wrong-footing Nicholls from 10 yards.
Huddersfield's Danny Schofield: "I know this job comes with a lot of pressure. When you're not winning games, when you're losing games, the pressure's mounting, and I take full responsibility for that. You do actually feel a lot of pressure in this job, but you have to try and control that pressure. My focus is just on what I can control, seeing where we can improve all the time.
"The players have again given me everything out there on the pitch and the result's obviously not what we were looking for. We placed a lot of importance on this game, probably more than the others, because of the run of results we've had. It's a game we prepared really hard for, preparing to beat this team, which we felt we could do. But the result in the end showed that we didn't."
Wigan's Leam Richardson: "I thought the game summed up the Championship. You have to defend at times, no matter how well you're playing. For the first hour, I thought we were really good value as an away team for our lead. I thought we controlled large parts of the game before we had to ride our luck a little bit at times.
"At the same time, we hit the post, Callum goes round the goalkeeper and can't score, and I thought the game may have changed on that. They threw caution to the wind, put a few more attackers on, and you expect them to give you a challenge, which you have to accept. The character we showed to stay in the game, the fitness levels, the substitutes that came on to the pitch, the strong habits we have, our work ethic served us well."
