Wigan Athletic vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
DW StadiumAttendance13,611.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers at the DW Stadium as Nathan Broadhead scores the only goal of the game to lift the Latics into the top half of the table.
Wednesday 12 October 2022 12:08, UK
Wigan secured their first home win of the season as Nathan Broadhead's goal steered them to a 1-0 victory over Blackburn.
Everton loanee Broadhead struck just after the hour mark at the DW Stadium to seal all three points for the Latics.
For Blackburn it continued a remarkable sequence of results that have seen them either win or lose their last nine games in succession. They missed the chance to move into the top six.
Chances of real quality were few and far between in the first half, but there was no doubt that Thomas Kaminski was the busier of the goalkeepers, called into action to make saves from Broadhead and Will Keane.
Jon Dahl Tomasson made three early changes to try and find the breakthrough for Blackburn, but on 62 minutes Wigan's pressure finally told as they took the lead.
Tyler Morton's error allowed Keane to get the ball in the box. His effort was saved by Kaminski, but he could only push it into the path of Broadhead - who steered the ball into an empty net.
Wigan's Leam Richardson: "I thought the result tonight was a fair result with the honesty and the application the lads were giving. We thought at one point these nights would never come back to the DW. I thought we played well enough and we deserved the result tonight.
"I'm happy we're competitive because we're new to the division. Most of our lads have come from League One together and we're relishing the challenge."
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson: "It was a disappointing result and the players thought it was a disappointing performance as well. We dealt with the first and second balls well, but we made too many mistakes today.
"I'm surprised the goal was allowed because it should have been a free-kick on Morton. It was a game of few chances, so a draw normally would have been the right result."
Whatmough didn't give Blackburn a sniff all game in the heart of Wigan's back three, protecting goalkeeper Ben Amos brilliantly and largely helping to keep Ben Brereton Diaz and Co at bay.
Both sides are back in action at 3pm on Saturday. Wigan head to Sunderland, while Blackburn travel to Middlesbrough.