Leeds United win again thanks to Alex Mowatt rocket at Wigan Athletic
Guardian 7/3/15Richard Jolly at the DW stadium
Perhaps chairmen are overrated. Wigan Athletic had two at the DW Stadium; past and present sat side by side as Dave Whelan and his grandson and successor, David Sharpe, watched Athletic suffer a fifth successive home defeat. The Leeds United owner, Massimo Cellino, was conspicuous by his absence. The Italian is disqualified from running United for the remainder of the season. They are faring better without him.
Alex Mowatt’s goal secured Leeds’ seventh win in 10 games. Eight points from safety, Wigan may require a similar run if they are to preserve their Championship status. They were experts in escapology under Roberto MartÃnez, but eras are ending. Whelan stood down this week, giving Wigan – exceptions in much they do – a chairman who, at 23, is 12 years younger than Emmerson Boyce, their right-back. Sharpe’s inheritance seems ever likelier to include a League One club.
A change at the helm has not brought the required change in fortune. This felt like the first day of spring, but Wigan have not won at home since summer. A club-record run was extended to 15 frustrating matches on their own turf as a celebration turned into a familiar lament.
Whelan was granted a standing ovation when he took to the pitch before kick-off. It was an appreciation of a man who transformed a previously unremarkable club in an extraordinary two decades.
“When I bought Wigan, we were third from bottom of the old fourth division,” Whelan recalled in his address to the crowd. He funded a stadium and a rise from the foot of the basement division to the Premier League. The concern is that Wigan are making the reverse journey at similar speed, and the Leeds fans chorused: “Wigan’s going down.”
It was a predictable response to a harmless and friendly jibe. “Two years ago, we brought the FA Cup back to Wigan,” Whelan said. “Leeds United have not won the Cup for 25 years.” It is actually 44, but the Wigan public were willing to forgive factual inaccuracies from their benefactor. Whelan’s recent six-week ban from football activity for using racist language went unmentioned, but a man with an occasional tendency to talk himself into trouble was ill-served by his ghostwriter: his final programme notes got off to a false start with the message: “Tonight we welcome Cardiff City.”
Perhaps it was wishful thinking. Leeds are one of the Championship’s form teams. “We have got ourselves out of a bit of a pickle,” said their manager, Neil Redfearn. The prospect of relegation has receded with a renaissance in which Mowatt has been pivotal. The 20-year-old’s fourth goal in six games was a 20-yard thunderbolt. “It was a bit of quality and brilliance that was not in keeping with the game,” said Redfearn.
Wigan responded. Marc-Antoine Fortuné and Sheyi Ojo delivered a series of inviting crosses that their team-mates contrived to miss.
James McClean fizzed a shot into the side-netting. The bustling Kim Bo-Kyung excelled – “sensational”, according to his manager, Malky Mackay – and the South Korean’s well-struck volley seemed goalbound, only to thud into McClean’s back. It appeared to sum up Wigan’s fortunes.
“Sixty percent possession and 19 attempts at goal should normally mean a victory, let alone scrambling to get a draw,” added Mackay. “The performance shows we are still fighting, but we have to try and get back-to-back wins to put pressure on other clubs.” And, indeed, to justify Whelan’s controversial choice of Mackay. “He is Mr Wigan,” said the Scot. “His legacy will always be here.”
Yet Monday marks the second anniversary of Wigan’s FA Cup quarter-final win at Everton. That took them to Wembley; now Shrewsbury is a more probable destination next season.