Report by John Patrick Heeley

A single goal from substitute Neil Roberts was enough to give Latics the upper hand against Scunthorpe United in their bid to progress to the next stage of the Worthington Cup. Latics created the chances to put the tie out of the Third Division side's reach but were all squandered.

OK, we got the team selection wrong and the final score but Wigan earned a slender but totally deserved lead to take into the return leg at Glandford Park in a fortnight's time.

Wigan manager Bruce Rioch made a number of changes to his starting line up (totally against our prediction) with Lee Ashcroft lining up alongside Andy Liddell up front, adding fuel to a vicious rumour being passed around that Simon Haworth is on his way to Burnley. Youngster Paul Mitchell took his place in the defence and Roberto Martinez replacing Neil Redfearn in midfield.

Wigan totally dominated the game from start to finish and were well worth more than the narrow, solitary goal margin they take up the M18 for the second leg.

New signing Lee Ashcroft should've done far better midway through the opening period after a perfect ball from Liddell split the Scunthorpe defence to put the former Preston North End striker clear through, beating the offside trap, only for Ashcroft, with only the goalkeeper to beat, to slide the ball a yard wide of the far post.

On 28 minutes Aschroft was in the thick of it again when he outpaced Scunthorpe's Dewhurst to break clear on goal only to be dragged back by a bit of shirt pulling right on the edge of the penalty area by the frustrated Iron's defender.

The referee had no option but to pull out his red card and give Dewhurst his orders to walk, who then commenced to throw a barrage of abuse at the referee's assistant who had flagged for the offence on the left touchline. Why, I have no idea because it was one of the most blatant professional fouls I have ever seen?

The resulting free kick was then blasted straight at the Scunthorpe wall by Darren Sheridan and immediately sent Scunthorpe on the counter attack and was only foiled by Mitchell's perfectly timed challenged in the Wigan penalty area.

The second half was more of the same with Wigan continuously on the attack but with nothing coming to fruition and it was as late as the 72nd minute before they managed to find the goal.

Wigan brought on Ian Kilford and Neil Roberts to replace Mitchell and the limping Ashcroft and within minutes Kilford rose to meet a clearance, nodded the ball down the line to Liddell who took it straight to the bye-line before crossing the ball low across the face of goal meeting Roberts running in who pushed the ball to the far side of the goal leaving the Scunthorpe keeper stranded.

In the dying seconds keeper Roy Carroll gave Wigan a bit of a scare when he was called into action, for probably the only occasion in the match, to clear his lines. The Northern Ireland shot stopper race off his line, dove in mid air to punch the ball clear but landed awkwardly. The manoeuvre was totally unnecessary and he could've broke his bleedin' neck but the consensus amongst Wigan fans after the game was that he must of been bored stiff stuck there on his line with nothing else to do.

The Scunthorpe keeper made a couple of magnificent saves during the second half to deny Wigan from making the scoreline a bit more respectable.

Final score 1-0 but after tonight's performance from Scunthorpe, Latics shouldn't have too much to worry about if they have any desire to progress further in a cup competition that has lost a bit of it's shine over the last few years.

One interesting point of note was that former Wigan keeper Nigel Adkins, now physio at Scunthorpe, was substitute goalkeeper for the Lincolnshire side. Now that was scraping the barrel a bit, he's at least 40 now if he's a day.