Blackpool vs Wigan Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
Bloomfield RoadAttendance11,679.
Sunday 1 March 2015 17:09, UK
James McClean netted the third as Wigan boost their survival hopes with a vital 3-1 win at fellow Sky Bet Championship strugglers Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.
South Korea international Kim Bo Kyung, who joined from Cardiff earlier in February, opened his Latics account just before the break and centre-back Harry Maguire, on loan from Hull, added a second midway through the second half.
Winger McClean then sealed the visitors' victory late on to leave Blackpool - who scored a late consolation through Gary Madine - routed to the bottom of the table, 15 points from safety.
Wigan - who remain second-bottom, nine points adrift of 21st-place Rotherham - were on top from the start. The first chance of the game came from a 14th-minute corner, whipped in by Jermaine Pennant, which narrowly evaded the head of James Perch who was six yards out at the far post.
Wigan were unsurprisingly finding joy against the Football League's leakiest defence, with Blackpool having conceded 65 goals prior to kick off, and Liverpool loanee Sheyi Ojo threatened after 18 minutes but saw his left-footed shot easily held by keeper Joe Lewis.
The first half was punctuated by a serious looking injury to Blackpool's Henry Cameron, who was helped off after 28 minutes and replaced by Nathan Delfouneso.
Blackpool's only real opening of the first half came, as it often does, from the left boot of Jamie O'Hara as his 44th-minute free-kick was met by the head of Dom Telford who guided his header wide of the near post when unmarked from eight yards.
But Wigan took the lead on the stroke of half-time after profiting on chaotic Blackpool defending. McClean's scuffed shot was inexplicably allowed to get to the back post, where Perch found midfielder Kim who tapped home past a seated Lewis.
Blackpool tried to show creativity early in the second half but were let down by their execution. O'Hara cut a left-wing corner to the edge of the box, where Delfouneso sliced his volley hopelessly wide.
The hosts piled on the pressure and looked certain to equalise after 62 minutes when O'Hara's free-kick was knocked down by Grant Hall to Tom Aldred, but his shot from six yards was brilliantly blocked on the line by the sliding Emmerson Boyce.
However, Wigan doubled their lead after 67 minutes when Maguire's header from Pennant's cross was helped into the net by a desperate Darren O'Dea on the line.
And the game was well and truly sealed for Wigan after 79 minutes when McClean slotted past Lewis - triggering a mass exit from Bloomfield Road.
Those disgruntled home fans who did leave missed Madine tapping home Tony McMahon's cross on 85 minutes, but it was merely consolation for the Seasiders who now have not won in six games.
