Barnsley vs Wigan Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
Oakwell StadiumAttendance12,181.
Sunday 20 November 2016 22:58, UK
Wigan produced a solid defensive display away from home, earning a 0-0 draw with Barnsley at Oakwell.
The result gives Warren Joyce his first point since he took charge of the Latics but also sees them fall further into the relegation zone.
Meanwhile it was the Tykes' third consecutive draw and for the second game in a row, they failed to score, even though they arguably had better opportunities to seal all three points.
It was the visitors who created the first chance of the game, David Perkins received the ball from Nick Powell inside the area but his low shot was comfortably saved by Adam Davies.
Barnsley's Adam Armstrong tested the Wigan back four early on, when he ran in behind, but his shot was weak and didn't trouble Adam Bogdan.
Sam Winnall then came within inches of taking the lead with his header, after Andy Yiadom found him with a superb cross.
Just before half-time, Conor Hourihane's shot from the edge of the box was headed into the back of the net by Armstrong, but the flag was up and the goal was ruled out for offside.
The Tykes started the second half positively, with Armstrong seeing his effort deflected for a corner and full-back James Bree blasting his shot over the bar.
Wigan's bad luck continued when Bogdan was carried off on a stretcher, with around half an hour to go. Veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen came on to replace him.
Ryan Kent went closest to breaking the deadlock, when he cut inside and curled the ball just over the top right corner.
Barnsley kept creating chances, Armstrong headed over from Winnall's cross and captain Hourihane skied a central free-kick. Deep into injury time, second-half substitute Adam Hammill saw his shot blocked by a flying Perkins, Hourihane then picked up the rebound but Jaaskelainen was alert and caught the shot easily.
Barnsley still threatened to score, getting the ball forward a late on, but Wigan held them off, with an impressive defensive display.
Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom:
"My only sort of criticism would be that we didn't work the keeper enough today. I thought we controlled the game from start to finish and we're disappointed we didn't get the three points there, definitely.
"Today showed how far as a club we've come, against a team that came up with us and romped our league. Their set-up and line-up, playing without a striker, a centre-midfielder at right midfield and the first sub is a left-back, so that shows that they came here paying us the utmost respect, trying to nullify us, which they did."
Wigan manager Warren Joyce:
"I thought we did deserve the point. The way we defended, the way the lads put their bodies on the line second half, I thought it would be a travesty if we didn't get something out of the game.
"It was a good performance bearing in mind we came into the game, having lost one player this morning (to illness). The keeper (Adam Bogdan) gets stretchered off too, it throws a couple of curveballs and we've had to react and deal with the situation well."
