WIGAN UP FOR FIGHT ON AND OFF FIELD

WIGAN’S players showed admirable fight in this victory over QPR, on a day the crisis-club’s administrators drafted in a leading barrister to battle a 12-point penalty. The Championship side were plunged into administration last week and David Phillips QC will oversee an effort to overturn the likely deduction on the grounds of ‘force majeure’ which cites unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of involved parties. The EFL will enforce the 12-point deduction either at the end of this season or next season if Paul Cook’s side are relegated. Last night’s victory lifted Wigan eight points above the danger zone and was secured by a first-half strike from Wales international Kieffer Moore, who is one of those linked with leaving in what may become a fire sale to secure the club’s existence. Cook, who spent much of yesterday calling some of the 75 staff who have been made redundant, said: ‘We had to win tonight because it would have flattened the town if we’d lost. It’s been a bad week but we’re not as flat as those who have been made unemployed.’ Cook added that he was treating the punishment as a certainty. ‘We have to assume we are getting minus 12,’ he said. ‘But we’ve got plenty of fight in us, believe me.’ Earlier yesterday EFL chairman Rick Parry said there needed to be ‘collective responsibility’ for Wigan’s plight. DAVID DUNN is expected to be named as the new manager of League Two Barrow. The former Blackburn Rovers midfielder, 40, would succeed Ian Evatt who took over at Bolton.