More like it

That was more like it!

For week’s we’ve wanted the real Wigan Athletic to step up. Or at least the Wigan Athletic we saw in August.

On a bitterly cold and wet afternoon in South London they did just that.

Ryan Lowe had spoken about a feeling in training during the week and so many players giving him selection headaches, the 90 minutes that unfolded at Plough Lane won’t have helped to ease those headaches.

Latics started the game as the dominant side and could have been two or three goals to the good before half-time.

But as with too many games this Autumn Latics failed to get a foothold in the game.

Chances went begging for the likes of Fraser Murray and Dara Costelloe as the latter again failed to fire.

So if was no surprise when the Dons went ahead mid way through the second half. It felt like the well worn path we’ve been on for the last two months.

In previous matches Latics have crumbled when going behind but Saturday was different.

On came Ollie Cooper and 18 year old Harrison Bettoni, his only previous appearance coming in the EFL trophy campaign.

Bettoni showed confidence well beyond his years as he headed straight over to take a free kick.

With his first kick of the game he got Latics back on level terms and sent the 700 or so Wiganer’s in to raptures.

If what he did on 77 minutes was impressive what came on 87 minutes went one better.

As Jensen Weir and Paul Mullin combined Bettoni latched on to a through ball and scored the winner.

The game turned on its head thanks to an 18 year old on his debut and if he never scores again for Wigan Athletic he’ll still go down in history.

But I’ve a sneaking feeling that Bettoni will indeed score more for Wigan Athletic and hopefully he’s the latest in a long line of fantastic talents to emerge from the academy.

So Latics have managed to banish the ‘no away wins’ curse and did so in some style. It’s been a difficult couple of months and the positivity of the summer and early season seemed to have disappeared.

But it’s amazing what a win can do for you, if we’d have lost on Saturday quite rightly there would have been a number of dissenting voices and you would have been looking over your shoulder at that bottom three.

But a win does a lot, it stops the rot, it builds on an unbeaten run and shows that maybe this side are working out how to grind out results.

Either way there’s a chance to start climbing the table now and the lads need to follow that up with a win over Stevenage on Saturday afternoon.

The games are coming thick and fast over the next five weeks or so and it isn’t an exaggeration to say this next month including the festive period could define our season.

Let’s hope we’re starting to hit form at the right time.

Sean Livesey

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