Leeds 2 Wigan 0: McCormack bags double as Whites see off managerless Latics
Mail 4/12/13By Richard Gibson
Ross McCormack took his Championship goal tally to 14 to keep Leeds on the fringe of the play-off places.
This was their fifth straight win at Elland Road and McCormack, the division's top scorer, has found the net in all of them.
Having forced home a 15th-minute opener against a Wigan team re-grouping 24 hours after manager Owen Coyle departed, the Scotland international then claimed a second late on when his whipped free-kick flew into the far corner - dismissing team-mate Jason Pearce's protestations that he applied the faintest of finishing touches.
'It's Ross' goal, that's what it looked like to me and I said that to Jason and left them to have a fight downstairs about it!' smiled Leeds boss Brian McDermott. 'We got a lot of help from the crowd tonight.'
McCormack has been a revelation since signing a new four-year contract with Leeds in August and passed a fitness test on his hip to orchestrate their latest win.
The 27-year-old seized on Pearce's knockdown from an Alex Mowatt corner and sweeped the ball over the line from inside the six-yard box.
Then, after Leeds withheld Wigan pressure either side of the interval, came the decisive dead-ball moment that left Scott Carson helpless. It meant a losing return to the Wigan hotseat for caretaker boss Graham Barrow.
In his first spell in charge in 1994-95, Barrow staved off the threat of relegation to the Conference. Now he has been tasked with steadying the ship while a successor to Coyle is sought.
He will have greater preparation time for the weekend's league fixture with Millwall while there is every chance he could still be at the helm for the crucial Europa League clash with Maribor next Thursday.
'The disappointment for me was the lack of finishing power,' said Barrow.
