Wigan Athletic capped a dramatic couple of nights at the foot of the Championship table as they won at Reading to claim a second away victory in three games.
Just 24 hours after bottom club Luton Town beat Brentford, Barnsley matched that by winning at Hull – and Wigan became the third occupants of the bottom three to also capture maximum points.
Kieffer Moore set the Latics on their way on 23 minutes when he met Nathan Byrne’s speculative right-wing cross with an astonishingly cheeky finish, coolly finding the bottom left corner with a stunning flick from the right corner of the six-yard box.
Jamal Lowe then made the points safe when he found the bottom right corner from a set-piece on 67 minutes, before a third goal from Michael Jacobs in the ninth minute of stoppage time caused by a bad injury to late substitute Chey Dunkley.
But the gloss was taken off Wigan’s win by the suspected broken leg suffered by big defender Dunkley in a collision – just minutes after coming on. He was finally stretchered off following lengthy treatment before being taken straight to hospital.
Wigan, who have now suffered just one defeat in seven Championship matches, remain 22nd in the table.
They have now moved up level on points with 21st-placed Middlesbrough but now face a tough trip to leaders West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Wigan’s third successive away game without defeat atoned for their 3-1 loss to Reading in late November when they led 1-0 with 11 minutes left only to get hit by a stunning five-minute George Puscas hat-trick.
A ninth league win of the campaign for Paul Cook’s side lifts them to within five points of Reading, who suddenly now look far from safe in 16th, like a host of other sides in the lower half of the Championship table.
Reading’s fifth home game without victory is their longest winless stretch at the Madejski Stadium since a five-match run last season. And the next visitors to Berkshire this Saturday are another resurgent relegation-battling outfit, Barnsley.
Reading boss Mark Bowen:
“That was tough to take, very much so, I’m quite staggered at the moment at what I just witnessed. I’ve no fears about relegation. But it was certainly a wake-up call.
“Three months I’ve been here and I’ve spent many times giving the lads pats on the back. And rightly so. But this is one of those times when it was just unacceptable.
“My job is to take this club forward and I will endeavour to do that, with the last breath in my body. But we were outbattled, outplayed and out-everythinged.
“The players didn’t work hard enough to make things work. You need work, desire, application and braveness. But we didn’t have any of that. There just seemed a casualness about our mentality.”
Wigan Athletic manager Paul Cook:
“It doesn’t look good for Chey. It looks like he’s broken his leg.A very strong team performance has really been marred by an injury to a fantastic lad, a good kid and a popular member of our dressing room.
“I’m delighted to win but it’s very difficult to have much emotion other than sadness at the moment. It would have been a happy journey back – but it can’t be now.
“We’re doing well at the minute, that’s there for everyone to see. You can see the confidence in our players. We passed well, created numerous chances and thoroughly deserved to win.
“I just wish we were going back home with all the players on the bus and Chey in the middle of it. The injury to him has just knocked me sideways.”
