West Bromwich Albion vs Wigan Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
The HawthornsAttendance21,552.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between West Brom and Wigan at The Hawthorns as Daryl Dike's goal boosted the play-off hopes of Carlos Corberan's Baggies side on Tuesday night.
Tuesday 7 March 2023 23:49, UK
West Brom closed the gap to the Sky Bet Championship play-offs to four points with a 1-0 win over lowly Wigan at The Hawthorns.
Daryl Dike's 27th-minute header - his third goal in two home games - was enough to extend their eight-match unbeaten home run in the Championship.
Carlos Corberan's side looked good value for their return to winning ways as Dike, Jed Wallace and John Swift hit the woodwork, while Conor Townsend's shot forced a superb save from Ben Amos.
But Wigan's Tom Pearce - who was not even named in their 18-man squad until an injury to Jack Whatmough in the warm-up - almost grabbed a spectacular equaliser at the death.
West Brom missed a golden chance to take the lead in the 16th minute.
Jayson Molumby seemed to get the ball tangled between his feet from Conor Townsend's low cross from six yards out after Wallace had switched play then Marc Albrighton fed the left-back on the overlap.
Albion scored the goal they deserved in the 27th minute. Dike started and finished it, nodding home from a yard out after he held up play from Wallace's pass then released Molumby for a cross that Amos palmed onto the crossbar.
Inspired by his sixth goal of the season, the American striker then went close to a spectacular strike with a full-blooded volley on the turn after flicking up Darnell Furlong's pass. Amos was relieved to turn it onto the post before collecting.
West Brom tried to strengthen their grip on the game in the second half. Townsend went close when his low drive was tipped away by Amos at full stretch then the dangerous Wallace twice threatened, smacking a shot against the post then sidefooting wide from Swift's through-ball.
Wigan attempted to make Albion pay for their missed chances by pressing for the equaliser in the last 20 minutes.
Ashley Fletcher crossed for substitute Josh Magennis but the striker could only head over the bar.
Then fellow replacement Thelo Aasgaard forced Josh Griffiths to palm away a curling effort after Nathaniel Chalobah carelessly conceded possession on the edge of his own box.
Fletcher maintained the visitors' threat when he sized up a shot from 25 yards but his curling effort drifted wide.
But Swift should have scored an overdue Albion second goal only to hit the bar with a shot as they seemingly tried to walk the ball into Wigan's net.
There was just time for Pearce's angled volley to be tipped over by Griffiths at the death.
West Brom's Carlos Corberan:
"When you don't perform well, you put the result at risk. I think we've moved to a point in the Championship now where you have to have a specialist mentality to meet the moments, otherwise fatigue will tell. In this period the number of possibilities for the squad have been reduced so the tiredness increases. In these type of situations fatigue can start to play an important part, especially in the second halves of games, and this is something we need to avoid. I feel if we had scored a second goal, we would have been watching a different game. The fact we didn't score again increased the anxiety and negativity and we started to play worse.
"He [Dike] scores with an action that demands instinct of the striker. The striker needs to be in the key position, at the key moment - and he was there. If he isn't in that position at this moment, there's no goal. I'm pleased because he made a lot of effort, and in front of him he has a lot of games to make more effort too. Now he moves to one period where a strong mentality is going to be key for him."
Wigan's Shaun Maloney:
"I was really disappointed with the first half. I just felt it was not what we were looking for, particularly in the position we're in. I felt the first half just drifted by for us and we can't afford that. In the second half, we were a lot more aggressive with how we were looking to take the play and attack.
"I thought the substitutions were excellent and they were creating chances - they were quite attacking at times and had chances. They had a positive impact on the team."
