Monday 16 March 2015 15:44, UK
Rotherham defender Kirk Broadfoot has labelled Wigan midfielder James McClean a 'cheat' for his part in his side's opening goal of their 2-1 win on Saturday.
Latics breathed fresh life into their Sky Bet Championship survival fight with the success at the AESSEAL New York Stadium which brought them just six points behind the Millers, who sit in the final spot above the drop zone.
But their opening goal was shrouded in controversy after Broadfoot was penalised for a challenge on McClean, with Jermaine Pennant whipping in the resulting free-kick.
Broadfoot insisted he made no contact and condemned his opponent.
The Scot said: "It's a blatant dive. He's cheating. That is cheating, I am nowhere near him and he's diving. Everyone can see I clearly jumped out of the way and he dived up. There's no more I can say about it. I'm nowhere near him. He's dived and it leads to their goal. It's disappointing to see."
Millers boss Steve Evans was equally scathing of McClean's theatrics, adding: "It's not a free-kick. We have got the benefit of having looked at it and if people want to go diving around and getting free-kicks then Wigan are welcome to them."
The incident proved costly as Pennant converted the dead ball and then repeated the trick five minutes later from an almost identical position to double Latics' lead.
The Millers were unable to claw themselves back into the game despite Matt Derbyshire's effort on the brink of half-time as they were drawn back into the dogfight.
But Broadfoot, who has played the last four games in the heart of defence, knows survival is still in his side's hands and is looking forward to back-to-back games against Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday.
"Six points is still a healthy gap," he added. "To be honest, we'd have taken that at this stage at the beginning of the season.
"We just have to move on. If our next game wasn't until Saturday, we could maybe analyse this, but with a game at Forest on Wednesday we just need to move on. We don't want to dwell on it, get disappointed.
"We need to get our tactics and game-plan ready (for Forest).
"It's a big week, but every week is a big week in the Championship. There are some big teams in there and they don't come much bigger than Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, particularly being a local derby as well.
"It's a big week, there are not many weeks to go and we need to pick up some points."
