Swansea City vs Wigan Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance16,644.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Swansea City and Wigan Athletic at the Swansea.com Stadium as Ryan Manning and a Joel Piroe penalty saw the Swans battle back.
Saturday 5 November 2022 19:13, UK
Swansea struck with an 84th-minute Joel Piroe penalty to earn a 2-2 draw against Wigan Athletic.
The hosts found themselves 2-0 down after just 15 minutes but fought back for a point thanks to Piroe's fifth goal of the season.
Wigan are left in a perilous position, they sit in 23rd place in the league, three points away from safety.
The Latics scored after just eight minutes when Will Keane found the back of the net from an in-swinging James McLean corner.
Tom Naylor then doubled the lead just with 16 minutes gone with another dominant header in the box as Wigan bossed the home side physically.
Swansea got a goal back through Republic of Ireland international Ryan Manning, when his curled effort from outside the box nestled in the top corner a couple of minutes before half-time.
The hosts pushed hard in the second half and were rewarded when Piroe stroked his penalty past Jamie Jones to earn the hosts a point.
Swansea controlled possession in the early stages and Armstrong Oko-Flex and Michael Obafemi had efforts at goal. But Wigan had looked dangerous and Keane leaped highest to meet McLean's inswinging corner.
The visitors soon doubled their lead with a powerful header from Naylor, from another set piece.
Ollie Cooper was the spark in Swansea's attack and the youngster felt he should have had a penalty when the ball bounced up and struck McLean's arm, in the box.
Despite frustrating Swansea for the first 42 minutes, the visitors allowed a poor Joel Latibeaudiere cross to find its way through to Manning, who struck a beautiful curled effort from outside the box.
Swansea came out firing in the second half, Obafemi laid Piroe off and the Dutch striker almost found the leveller but for a magnificent Jones save.
The home side continued to push but found life difficult as Wigan looked comfortable in defence.
Cooper missed a chance to equalise for the Swans when his back-heel from eight yards out was mistimed.
Swansea continued their pressure and were rewarded when Kyle Naughton was brought down in the box by Jason Kerr.
Piroe stepped up and struck it calmly into the bottom left corner, setting up a tense final 10 minutes.
Swansea's Russell Martin: "I was hoping we could win all day, but we shot ourselves in the foot early on. It takes great courage to fight back from where we found ourselves, and we should win the game. It was a big performance.
"I'd rather just win and not have to come back but the guys have really got character now. We have grown so much as a side since the start of the season. It was really important not to lose, because of the loss midweek. It was a huge effort to come back from being 2-0 down."
Wigan's Leam Richardson: "We were definitely worthy of our lead in the first half, we are a bit disappointed with Swansea's first goal coming just before the half-time whistle, but it just shows the quality they have in their ranks. So of course we can make better decisions surrounding the penalty. Jason (Kerr) has made a decision and we have to take that. That shows how close things are in this league.
"The enormity of our challenge is huge, about 16 months ago we were left with just three players, after administration. We can't lose sight of the fact that we got a group together in League One and now we are up against some excellent clubs in the Championship, week in week out."
