Report by John Patrick Heeley

The new season got under way in front of 8,391 fans at Vetch Field against Swansea City who, last year, won the Third Division title.

The game was turned on it's head on the stroke of half time when the referee sent off Wigan midfielder Kevin Nicholls for retalliation.

Bruce Rioch's first league game in charge of Laics will not be remembered as a classic but Wigan had to work hard to keep out Swansea and take something from this game.

Wigan's new signing Lee Ashcorft was thrown straight into the fray from the start but in an unfamiliar midfield role while Haworth and Liddell combined up front.

The game as a whole was a scrappy affair and with just over 10 minutes on the clock the referee used his first card of the day following Darren Sheridan's foul which nearly caused World War III on the pitch.

Latics appeared to be controlling the run of play during the first 45 minutes and in fact Scott Green caused the Swansea defence all sorts of problems with his attacking runs.

Any hopes of walking away with all three points from the Vetch Field effectively went out of the window on the stroke of half time.

Premiership referee Dermott Gallagher deemed that Nicholls' 'reaction' to Swanea's full-back Steve Jones foul was worthy of a red card and off went Nicholls bringing Latics down to 10 men.

The second half saw a Wigan tactical change in an attempt to compensate for the absent Nicholls. Simon Haworth was pushed forward as a lone striker while Andy Liddell took a step back and joined the midfield in a 4-4-1 .formatiion.

Opportunities for either side were few and far between during the second period and neither really looked like scoring, the game being controlled by midfield.

Wigan's best chance of the game fell to Andy Liddell on 82 minutes. Substitute Roberto Martinez switched to ball to Scott Green down on the right wing, mid-way inside Swansea's half.

Green's cross landed at Liddell's feet on the edge of Swansea's area but his first time shot blazed well over the bar and into the terracing holding the disappointed Latics fans.

Apart from that the second half was almost a non-entity with Freestone and Carroll in either goal having next to nothing to do for the remainder of the afternoon.