Match Report | Latics 1 QPR 0

Max Power’s early penalty helps Latics record a vital victory in their fight for Championship survival 

• Match Report | Latics 1 QPR 0
• Latics dig in deep to record a vital victory in their fight for Championship survival 
• Max Power’s early penalty proved to be decisive at the DW Stadium

LATICS 1

Power 6’

QPR 0

Attendance: 12,608 (794)

Wigan Athletic made a perfect start to their final run-in of the 2022/23 Championship campaign after they battled hard to earn a 1-0 victory against Queens Park Rangers on Saturday afternoon. 

With both sides needing a victory to strengthen their own survival aspirations, Latics embraced the pressure and secured a huge three points thanks to an early penalty from Max Power. 

Shaun Maloney’s side headed into the game at the DW Stadium, aiming to build on their positive point and performance at Watford prior to the March international break. 

Latics started their final block of fixtures with Saturday’s home clash against Queens Park Rangers, and with an eight-point deficit to overturn, the Club’s famous motto of ‘Believe’ was rather fitting in the lead-up to the game. 

Maloney made four changes from the trip to Vicarage Road, with Jack Whatmough, Omar Rekik, Callum Lang and Ashley Fletcher all coming into the starting line-up in place of Ryan Nyambe, Steven Caulker, Tom Naylor, and Will Keane.

On the back of two successive defeats against Blackpool and Birmingham, QPR made five changes from their last league outing two weeks ago, with Leon Balogun, Ethan Laird, and Chris Willock notably making their returns from lengthy injuries. 

Attacking towards a packed Leam Richardson South Stand in the first half, Latics enjoyed a dream start to the Championship encounter when they went ahead with just five minutes on the clock. 

After latching onto a beautiful long ball over the top, Sinani was pulled down by defender Balogun after he went beyond the former Latics loanee. Power was entrusted with the responsibility to take the spot-kick in the absence of usual penalty taker Keane, and he made no mistake, placing a fantastic finish into the top corner to score his first-ever goal in the Championship. 

As expected, Latics’ fast-paced start to the encounter was met by a reaction from the visitors, and QPR had their first chance of the afternoon when Laird pulled the ball back to Willock from the right-hand side, but Ben Amos was on hand to gather the effort at the second time of asking. 

Willock was involved again for the visitors just three minutes later, this time looking to be the provider as he crossed in for Chris Martin to glance towards goal, but thankfully for Latics, the looping effort went over the crossbar and behind for a goal-kick. 

Following absorbing a period of sustained pressure from Ainsworth’s men, Latics turned their attention towards hurting the visitors at the other end, and they created a number of opportunities to add to their advantage. 

First, Power had a curling free-kick from the left of the penalty area thwarted at relative ease by QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng, before Latics captain Tendayi Darikwa headed over the crossbar after some excellent play from Fletcher set up the chance. 

Latics were forced into an early change on the half-hour mark after Sinani went down with an injury and was subsequently replaced by Thelo Aasgaard. This fortunately did not impact Latics’ momentum in the game too much, and Maloney’s men had one final chance to double their lead prior to the break when Lang’s deflected cross had to be acrobatically pushed away by Senegal International Dieng. 

Latics’ impressive first-half display led to the visitors making a change at the restart, with Moroccan international Ilias Chair replacing defender Jimmy Dune. It was certainly an attacking substitution from Ainsworth, and it almost immediately had its desired effect when Martin had to be denied by a brilliant point-blank Amos save. 

Moments after Lang saw his 20-yard free-kick fielded by Dieng, Amos was called into action again during the infancy of the second period, with the Latics stopper having to dive at full stretch to prevent Chair’s bouncing wide free-kick going all the way through a congested penalty area and into the top corner. 

Being backed all the way by the vocal home supporters, Latics took in the energy levels generated from the stands and kept on giving their all to make sure that they kept hold of the lead that they had worked so hard to earn. 

Tom Naylor was introduced in the 65th minute for the ever-impressive Lang, with Maloney looking to provide his side with some extra reassurance at the back for the final stages. Naylor was straight in the thick of the action, as he put in a vital challenge to take the sting out of Willock’s close-range effort following some good work from former Latics man Jamal Lowe. 

It was a cagey affair during the final half hour of the Championship encounter, which came as no real surprise given the magnitude of the game for both sides. The next real opportunity of the game came with just five minutes remaining when Fletcher was almost played through by Naylor, but Dieng recognised the danger early and kicked the ball into touch. 

Six minutes of additional time was added at the end of 90, and this caused the game to spark into life. Amos was the hero for Maloney's side, as he produced a remarkable finger-tip save to tip Kenneth Paal's looping effort onto the post and behind. At the other end, James McClean almost swapped up the victory when his low effort was parried wide by Dieng, who had just tracked back after joining the visitors' attack. 

The full-time whistle was met by a huge roar from the Latics faithful, and they stayed late after the game to applaud Maloney and his players after they put in a hard-working performance that they can be proud of. 

For Latics, it is now the time to start believing as they travel to face Championship high-flyers Sheffield United on Easter Friday, aiming to back up their victory with another huge three points in their fight for Championship survival.