- Former Wigan Athletic striker Nathan Ellington reflects on 20 years at the DW Stadium and his individual memories
- Ellington discusses sending Latics to the Premiership, penalty kicks and partnership with Jason Roberts
- Ellington: “To score the last goal of the game to seal us going up, that is best feeling I can remember from playing here at the DW Stadium.”
Former Wigan Athletic striker Nathan Ellington says scoring Latics’ third goal in our 3-1 win over Reading at the DW Stadium 14 years ago was his best for the club on our own patch – then the JJB Stadium.
Ellington headed home as Latics sealed promotion to the Premiership with a final day win over the Royal.
Talking to iFollow Latics about his Latics memories, ‘The Duke’ said that moment was the most special.
“There was so much riding on the game,” Ellington said. “We knew we had to win to make sure we go up, no matter what happened elsewhere.
“To score the last goal of the game to seal us going up, that is best feeling I can remember from playing here at the DW Stadium.”
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The Duke’s partnership with Jason Roberts was arguably the greatest strike duo this club has seen and possibly will ever see.
And the striker reflects fondly on taking the EFL apart with Roberts.
“I had great memories playing with Jason,” Ellington continued. “He pulled rank on me at first on penalties and the rules were that he took his penalties, I take mine and if anyone else got fouled he took them, but if he missed, I was on all penalties – that’s what happened from then on.
“Playing with him was the best time I had; we both wanted to do really well but we both also got equal satisfaction from helping the other one score – you don’t get that much in football these days.”
From the spot Ellington was so reliable and he also told us the story of how he learned to be so successful from the spot.
“I learned the technique off Nick Culkin – who came down to Bristol Rovers after being at Manchester United – and he told me how Eric Cantona used to take penalties and, after he told me how to do that, I scored around 40 penalties in a row against him,” he added.
“I can’t remember ever missing a competitive penalty.”
