• Wigan Athletic secured their first three points of the season with a hard fought 1-0 victory against Crawley Town at the Brick Community Stadium.
• The visitors started confidently after making an impressive start to their League One campaign following promotion. 
• But it was Latics who took the lead on the half hour mark when Thelo Aasgaard headed home from Luke Chambers’ excellent left-wing cross via a deflection off Crawley defender Joy Mukena.
• Early in the second half Latics loanee Silko Thomas was denied at the near post by goalkeeper Joe Wollacott.
• Crawley dominated possession and pressed for an equaliser with Sam Tickle making two good saves to deny Ade Adeyemo, Chambers making a crucial defensive clearance and Jay Williams heading just over.
• Joe Hugill might have sealed the points late on but fired over the top and Latics had to hang on for their first victory of the season.
• Latics move up to 18th in the League One table and Crawley are in eighth position.

Shaun Maloney made one change from the defeat at Reading with James Carragher coming in for his first League One start in place of Steven Sessegnon. 

The visitors started confidently moving the ball quickly. Junior Quitirna had a shot from outside the box saved by Tickle on nine minutes.

Thelo Aasgaard then picked the ball up from deep and drove at the Crawley defence before so nearly slipping Hugill in on goal.

On 28 minutes, Silko Thomas had the ball in the net, but the goal was chalked off for offside.

Two minutes later and Latics did go ahead when Chambers’ excellent cross from the left found Aasgaard to head home via a deflection off Mukena.

Just before the interval Dion Rankine was posing a threat down the down the right and his cross was close to finding Hugill.

Early in the second half Thomas broke down the left and into the area but Joe Wollacott denied him at the near post.

At the other end Tickle was quick to deny Ade Adeyemo with a low save to his left.

Kai Payne came on for his Latics league debut on 58 minutes replacing the injured Matt Smith.

Crawley were dominating possession now and pushing Latics deeper into defence. 

Chambers made a crucial interception to clear his lines before a Crawley forward could tap home.

Adeyemo was causing Latics all sorts of problems down the right but Crawley just couldn’t convert their chances.

Hugill then had a big chance 15 minutes before the end as Mukena misjudged the bounce and the Manchester United loanee raced clear. The defender got back as Hugill fired his effort over the crossbar.

At the other end Williams had a great chance to equalise but he headed over from point blank range as he climbed high at the back post.

Crawley pushed right to the end but Latics held out for the three points with some resolute defending.

Overview

It was a big relief for Latics players, manager and fans to get their first victory of the season.

This was a hard fought victory and on another day Crawley might’ve come away with the points. The visitors enjoyed 72 per cent possession and had 14 shots to Latics two.

Despite being tipped for relegation Crawley have won their previous three games and were impressive on the ball. I doubt they will be involved in a relegation fight and should be comfortable in L1 this season.   

To Latics credit they did show great determination to get the points on the board even though they had defend for long periods.

There’s clearly plenty of room for improvement but this performance was much better than at Reading last Saturday.

It’s still early days for Maloney’s new team and a couple of new additions in attack and midfield before the transfer deadline on Friday would be very welcome.

Post match comments

Maloney was proud of his side when speaking to the media afterwards, 

“It was a brilliant win,” he smiled.

“Against Charlton, we had the performance and didn’t win, and today, we had to find a way to win.

“I really liked the first half. It was always going to be an open game, and in the second, you saw the desperation to win a game.

“I didn’t feel any extra pressure going into this game but I can tell the players were dropping deeper, and in fairness to the young boys, they found a way to see out the game.

“I can’t say too many negative things about today. It’s not easy – we’re in League One and expectations are big – and we’re still trying to find ways to win, and we did today.

“Today, the players were fantastic in a very different way. The biggest thing I got today was the level of effort and the level of fight, and if our fans see that, I don’t think they can ask for much more.”

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