Wigan Athletic 0 - 0 Cardiff City. Match Report

[Cardiff City Mad]

Wigan's relegation fears grow with Cardiff draw.

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[Michael Morris]

Wigan were left hanging on to their Sky Bet Championship status by a thread after being held to a 0-0 draw by mid-table Cardiff.

Despite dominating the game, Wigan were unable to break through a determined Cardiff rearguard.

And indeed the visitors came closest to breaking the deadlock, with Craig Noone firing against the crossbar in the first half.

Graham Barrow's men will be relegated to League One if Birmingham pick up a single point from any of their last three fixtures.

Wigan predictably came flying out of the blocks and Welshman Craig Morgan headed just wide of Jamie Hanson's corner.

The home side - and their fans - were screaming for a penalty on the 14-minute mark when Shaun MacDonald took Gabriel Obertan's short pass before appearing to be clipped inside the area.

However, referee Oliver Langford ruled against the Welsh international and waved play on.

Wigan had welcomed back West Ham loanee Reece Burke after four months out with a hip problem and he was showing up very well at right-back, getting forward at every opportunity.

But the home side were unable to make their first-half dominance count on the scoreboard, with Morgan stabbing over from another Hanson corner.

After soaking up everything Wigan could throw at them, Cardiff almost sneaked ahead just before the interval when Noone took advantage of a mistake from David Perkins, only to fire against Matt Gilks' crossbar.

Perkins almost made amends within seconds of the restart only for his shot to fly just over the top.

Wigan threw on man of the moment Nick Powell and Ryan Colclough just before the hour mark to try to tip the balance their way.

And Powell almost made his presence felt immediately, narrowly failing to get on the end of a Michael Jacobs corner, with Dan Burn seeing his follow-up hacked away.

It became end-to-end stuff around the three-quarter mark and Cardiff almost nosed ahead with only their second real attempt at goal.

A flick header from Aron Gunnarsson flew inches wide of the far post agonisingly in front of the onrushing Bruno Manga, who would have had a tap-in.

Colclough was also looking lively off the bench, with a left-foot shot almost creeping in at the near post, but Ben Amos showed a very safe pair of hands to preserve his clean sheet.

Source : DSG

Cardiff City: Amos, Connolly, Morrison, Manga, Bennett, Gunnarsson, Ralls, M. Harris (Lambert, 57), Noone (Meite, 80), K. Harris (Halford, 85), Pilkington.

Subs unused: Peltier, Richards, Whittingham, Hoilett.

Wigan Athletic: Gilks, Burke, Burn, Morgan, Warnock; Hanson (Colclough, 57), Tunnicliffe, Perkins (Bruce, 80), MacDonald, Jacobs, Obertan (Powell, 57).

Subs unused: Jaaskelainen, Power, Morsy, Byrne.

Referee: O.Langford

Attendance: 10,875