Charlton Athletic have secured a comfortable 3-0 win over Wigan Athletic in their Championship match at the DW Stadium this evening.
The home side were the more threatening in the opening 15 minutes as Leon Clarke attempted to give Wigan an early lead, but his powerful header was tipped over by Stephen Henderson.
On-loan winger Sheyi Ojo provided some pace for the Latics, but Marc-Antoine Fortune fired wide from a through-ball provided by the youngster.
Against the run of play, it was Charlton who took the lead but Frederic Bulot made a counter-attacking move down the left before cutting back inside to blast it in from the edge of the box.
An injury saw Clarke stretchered off shortly after the half-hour mark and left the sides to play 10 minutes of injury time before the break, which gave the visitors enough time to double their advantage as Bulot turned provider, setting up Igor Vetokele for a header from close range.
Wigan saw lots of the ball in the opening minutes of the second half, but it was Charlton who continued to look the more dangerous in front of goal as Tony Watt attempted to set up Vetokele for his second of the match, but Ali Al-Habsi was ready for it.
The striker continued to pose a threat though, and came close to adding a third just short of the hour mark as he flicked the ball forward for Watt, but his shot was sliced inches wide.
Wigan started to create a few half-chances as the match progressed, but a James McClean free kick was straight at Henderson, while a corner was also cleared by the keeper.
Chris Eagles came off the bench to make his Charlton debut, and got involved when he won a free kick soon after, but the set piece came to nothing for the visitors.
McClean, Andrew Taylor and Chris McCann all tried to give Wigan some late hope as the hosts piled forward in the final 10 minutes, but all three efforts were blocked.
The misses proved costly as Eagles did manage to mark his debut with a goal to put the win beyond doubt for Charlton, turning the ball in from the middle of the box after Johann Berg Gudmundsson played it forward.
The result lifts Charlton up to 12th in the table, while Wigan stay 23rd, six points from safety.
Sian Cowper
