Wigan Athletic have climbed to within six points of safety in the Championship courtesy of a 1-0 victory over Reading at the Madejski Stadium this evening.
Malky Mackay's badly out-of-form side scored the only goal of the game in the first half thanks to a debut strike from Jason Pearce to give their survival hopes a real shot in the arm.
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The home side have experienced a decent run of form under new manager Steve Clarke in recent weeks, and they almost got things off to the perfect start when Garath McCleary forced Ali Al-Habsi into making a big save with four minutes played.
First blood was to go the visitors' way, though, as Pearce capitalised on a loose ball inside the box following a corner to prod home from close range.
In a first half which struggled to truly get going, chances proved to be few and far between, with a scuffed clearance from Wigan almost proving their downfall only for Hal Robson-Kanu's shot to be blocked away.
Nathaniel Chalobah came close to levelling things up with his headed attempt shortly before the interval which was well kept out by Al-Habsi once more, just moments after the Oman international had raced out to deny Simon Cox a shooting chance.
The first opening of the second half also fell the way of the Chelsea loanee after Oliver Norwood's cross dropped nicely to him, although he was unable to guide the ball goalwards.
A nasty injury picked up by Chris Herd saw play disrupted somewhat as he left the field on a stretcher to a round of applause from both sets of supporters, and it continued to be the hosts who asked all the questions when proceedings got back underway.
A strong stop from Al-Habsi was needed to deny Norwood's free kick 20 minutes from time as Reading really began to heat things up, but on the whole Wigan did well to restrict their opponents any real clear openings.
In fact, as Clarke's men pushed forward, gaps began to open up at the back which the Latics nearly exploited when Alex Pearce had to clear a deflected attempt off the line late on.
Despite 11 minutes of time being added on at the end of the game, Wigan managed to remain resilient to ensure that it was they who claimed three vital points in their push for safety, while Reading drop down to 17th place.
Daniel Lewis
