A young Wigan Athletic Reserves side drew 1-1 this afternoon against an Aston Villa Reserve side that contained three first team players.
Callum McManaman gave Graham Barrows charges the lead just before half-time following a great through ball by Nouah Dicko, Villa equalised in added on time at the end of the game.
Thanks to Latics media manager Ed Jones for the following match report:
ASTON VILLA 1 – 1 LATICS
Latics` brave rear-guard action came within a whisker of pulling off a marvellous victory against a strong Aston Villa team featuring Marc Albrighton, who scrambled home an equalizer deep in injury-time at Hinkley.
Man of the match Lee Nicholls – back between the posts after returning from the England Under 20s World Cup camp in Colombia – was in inspired form, pulling off a string of outstanding saves, but he was powerless to prevent Gary Gardner`s stoppage time header.
Villa`s side also included first team regulars Ciaran Clark and Eric Lichaj but it was Callum MacManaman who once again stood out. Just before the break he was put through by Nouha Dicko`s pin point through ball and finished calmly.
He had a chance to double his and Latics` tally in the second half, but chose to go alone when a better option might have been to slot the ball to the unmarked Adam Dawson. Easy to say in hindsight.
Latics fought really well to match Villa, although Nicholls was in superb form. He kept out Graham Burke’s powerful first-time drive and then brilliantly palmed away a Samir Carruthers header. He then saved one-handed from Albrighton.
Graham Barrow said: “They showed tremendous tenacity but one slight lapse at the very end let Villa back in. Hopefully, that can be a decent lesson. But we can`t fault their attitude and commitment.”
VILLA: Siegrist, Lichaj, Williams, Clark, Lowry, Albrighton, Gardner, Johnson, Cameron, Carruthers (Addy, 86), Burke (Taylor, 83).
Subs not used: Barrett, Caira, Nelson-Bryan.
LATICS: Nicholls, Girvan, Mustoe, Robinson, Langley, Chow, Dicko (Rugg, 56), Breeze (Boothman, 62), McManaman, Dawson (Watson, 86), Redmond.
Subs not used: Cotterill, Astles
Latics and Proud
Fancy writing an article about the Latics? Why not get in touch, we are always looking for new contributors, after all we are all Latics fans here and want to get the Latics message to the world, so if you have a favourite match or Latics memory get it jotted down, or whatever you want to say put it into an email and send it to us here at Vital Wigan
To get your article published just click here and we will put it onto the site
