Charlie Austin’s fourth goal in 4 games salvaged a point for West Brom after a laboured performance at the DW Stadium.
Albion have been in fine form recently going into this match off the back of six straight wins. But with Slaven Bilic resting key members of his side, the Baggies struggled to find their normal fluency and only had a string of missed chances by the home side to thank as they escaped with a draw.
The Baggies boss decided to rest key trio, Hal Robson-Kanu, Grady Diangana and the division’s in form player, Matheus Pereira. The decision looked misguided during a first half in which Albion were completely outplayed with the hosts creating and missing, numerous chances.
Struggling Wigan eventually took the deserved lead early in the second half. Sam Morsy’s long range effort rebounding off the post before rebounding off the unlucky Sam Johnstone’s back into the net. There is no doubt it was a fortuitous goal but it couldn’t be argued that Wigan didn’t deserve the lead.
Wigan hit the crossbar soon after and were then made to regret their several missed chances as Charlie Austin hit a fine equaliser for the visitors.
Wigan goalkeeper Jamie Jones needlessly picked up a back pass and Austin punished him by finding the top corner of the net from 6 yards from Jake Livermore’s nudge, despite Wigan crowding the goal line with 10 players.
Both sides had chances to win the game, Johnstone making a good save to keep The Baggies in it late on and Albion managed to hang on for a point they scarcely deserved.
With Leeds beating Hull on Tuesday night, it means Albion drop to second on goal difference but vitally, they are now 11 points clear of third placed Fulham.
Baggies boss Bilic was unhappy with his side’s performance but was pleased that they did not get any more punishment dished out to them on a night when maybe for the first time this season, they were second best.
Bilic’s side now travel to local rivals Birmingham City on Saturday hoping to put this performance behind them and get back to winning ways as they enter the extremely busy Christmas period. Let’s hope this is just a blip and Albion can go on another winning run and put as much space as possible between them and their fellow promotion chasers.