Barlow reaches double figures to see off Hatters

Report by Dave Seddon - Wigan Evening Post

Stuart Barlow took his goals tally for the season into double figures and saved Latics from a second successive blank weekend.

The Scouse hitman found the back of the net in typical poacher's fashion to end an afternoon of frustration for his side.

Just as Cardiff proved seven days earlier, Luton were a difficult side to break down and another goalless draw looked on the cards until Barlow popped up at the far post to fire home the 75th minute winner.

The three points in the bag were enough to send Latics leapfrogging over their visitors into second place, but manager John Benson - and no doubt the majority of the home faithful - were far from happy with the performance.

It was a well below par display, with Luton enjoying the better of the game in the first half, and then defending deeply in the second to try to shut out Latics.

For one reason or another, Benson's boys failed to exploit the generous width of the pitch, with much of their attacking play channelled through the middle of the park.

The three front men - Barlow included - looked out of sorts for long periods, often playing within a few yards of each other.

And in the first half, it was left to centre-backs Arjan De Zeeuw and Stuart Balmer to provide Latics' main attacking threat at set pieces, while doing a sterling job at the other end to keep the Luton strike force of Stuart Douglas and Liam George under control.

But let's not grumble too much. A win is a win and Latics are still unbeaten in the League this season and settled comfortably in the second promotion spot.

Perhaps the next fortnight without a game is a blessing in disguise, allowing some work to be done on the training pitch to iron out the problems.

By the time the next game comes around, some of the injuries may have cleared up while thier might even be a new face in the squad if Slovenian international Djoni Novak comes on board.

Latics started quite brightly and had Luton on the back foot in the early stages.

With the game three minutes old, Darren Sheridan lifted a free kick from the left across the far post where Balmer headed narrowly wide.

At the other end Matthew Spring saw a shot from the edge of the box blocked by De Zeeuw, while Roy Carroll comfortably held a shot from Paul McLaren.

Latics twice went close to going ahead in a matter of moments around the 20th minute mark.

First, Kevin Sharp's half volley from 20 yards after Simon Haworth had knocked down a cross from Carl Bradshaw, was tipped over the bar at full stretch by Nathan Abbey.

Sheridan swung over the resulting corner and following a scramble in the box, the ball landed at the feet of Balmer and his shot was turned around the post by the keeper.

That was the cue for Luton to take control, and they enjoyed their best spell of the game leading up to half time.

And only a linesman's flag prevented them taking the lead in the 38th minute.

Matthew Taylor curled a from the right wing into the box and defender Gary Rose rose to glance a header across Carroll and into the net.

Off went Doherty on a ridiculous celebration routine, only to be brought back down to earth with a bang when he realised the effort had been chalked off.

To be fair to the linesman and referee, the flag had gone up straight away as Doherty stole a yard in front of the home defence.

The interval saw Roberto Martinez replace Kevin Sharp who was having a rare off day in defence.

Sheridan dropped back into Sharp's left back berth with the Spaniard taking up a centrral midfield role.

And the arrival of the Iberian Idol certainly seemed to ignite Latics and within two minutes of the re-start, his pass picked out Haworth in the area, but the striker shot wide.

After 50 minutes, a shot from Ian Kilford was blocked in the area and fell to Barlow.

He fired the rebound past Abbey but Taylor cleared off the line the far post.
Luton were now restricted to chances off the break, but came close to breaking the stalemate in the 62nd minute.

Douglas broke down the midfield, squared the ball to his left into the path of Taylor, whose first time shot was parried around the near post by Carroll.

Martinez went close at the other end, latching onto Sheridan's cross field pass 20 yardds out before volleying just over the bar.

But the breakthrough finally came with quarter of an hour remaining.

The visitors defence failed to deal with the high ball in the box, Kilford nodded it down to the far post, where BARLOW brought it under control and crashed a low shot past Abbey into the far corner for goal number 10 of the season.

It was just a case of hanging on to the lead in the final 15 minutes, and that Latics did with some comfort, despite Luton forcing three late corners.

And Haworth almost gave the scoreline a more flattering look a minute into injury time.

He collected a huge punt downfield from Carroll, and fired in a volley from outside the box which caught a deflection, forcing Abbey to save at the near post.