HUTCHINSON’S GIFT FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY
WIGAN boss Paul Cook was handed the perfect birthday present by his side with a win over Millwall.
An own goal from Shaun Hutchinson just before the hour mark proved decisive in the scrappy encounter as the hosts closed the gap to safety to just two points.
Cook though, who turned 53 yesterday, wasn’t in the mood to get carried away.
“It’s just about keeping going, I say the same thing every week,” he said.
“We sat here a fortnight ago after the Preston game and we were all a little bit disappointed because we never played as well as we could.
“But I thought in general we were good, against a very strong side who were on a fantastic run of results. We defended well, we knew we’d get put under pressure in the last 10 minutes if we were in front.
“We didn’t have an extra centre-back on the bench to bring on, the lads had to stand up for themselves.”
Cook was forced to watch the game from the stands because of a touchline ban and he would have concerned for skipper Sam Morsy was caught late by the studs of Millwall midfielder Jed Wallace.
Thankfully for Wigan, the Egypt international was able to continue after treatment – while Millwall would have been relieved to see Wallace receive only a yellow card.
Millwall had a shout for a penalty when Ryan Woods was taken out by Nathan Byrne right on the edge of the area. Referee Jeremy Simpson awarded a freekick, but replays seemed to suggest the contact was inside.
The free-kick was straight down the throat of David Marshall, and Wigan had another let-off when a great cross from Jed Wallace saw Jon Dadi Bodvarsson make a mess of a header at the far post.
The second half continued in the same vein, with Wigan riding their luck.
Marshall dropped a routine corner right at the feet of Tom Bradshaw six yards from goal, but with the whole of an unguarded net to aim for, the Millwall striker somehow steered his shot wide.
Wigan immediately almost took advantage, with a shot from Pilkington deflecting off a defender and looping agonisingly wide of the far post.
But they did go ahead 12 minutes after the restart. Good work from Jamal Lowe found Pilkington, whose cross-shot was helped home by a helpless Hutchinson.
The hosts then held on for a clean sheet to leave Millwall manager Gary Rowett questioning his side’s mentality.
“It’s a feeling of disappointment really, on the back of two good performances,” he said.
“We seem to be able to lift our game for the teams at the upper end of the division. But we don’t seem to have that same mentality for these kind of games. And that’s very disappointing for me as manager.
“The major disappointment for me is we just didn’t really ever get going. It looked like Wigan were more desperate to win than we were. And that’s the biggest frustration for me.
“Sometimes you have to take a game by the scruff of the neck at places like Wigan. But we looked like we were waiting for things to happen.”