Report by John Patrick Heeley

For the second season running Oldham Athletic have stopped ended a long unbeaten run by Wigan.

A goal from Duxbury sent Oldham into a half time lead before Haworth levelled for Wigan as they dominated a large part of the second half.

However the bogey team struck again when Allott put in the winner.

The Oldham jinx struck again at a cold Boundary Park with Wigan more than matching the home sides for large periods but failing to capatalise on the goalscoring opportunities they carved out for themselves.

Oldham's desire to win shone through and they took all three points from the battle of the Latics for the third time in a row to end Wigan's 18 match unbeaten run.

The home side showed that they meant business in the opeining minutes when former Northampton Town striker Carlo Corazzin latched onto to a cross and powered a header narrowily wide.

Wigan's first chance of note came just after 5 minutes when Simon Haworth picked up a long ball from Kevin Sharp.

Wigan's leading goalscorer shot forward with the ball leaving the Oldham defence in his wake and with only goalkeeper Gary Kelly to beat fired the ball around him but his shot went a whisker wide of the far post.

Andy Liddell and Roberto Martinez both tried shots from distance, Liddell's effort was blocked by Kelly while Martinez could only put his shot wide.

The Boundary Park side nearly took the lead shorlty after the half hour mark when former Preston striker David Eyres lobbed Stillie from close in but Kevin Sharp was stood their on the line to head over the bar.

Oldham eventually took the lead 5 minutes from the interval when a cross from Canadian international Carlo Corazzin split the Wigan defence finding LEE DUXBURY on the edge of the area and his first time shot beat Derek Stillie at full stretch in the Wigan goal and sneaked in at the far post.

Wigan did get the ball in the back of the net just before half time though.

Andy Liddell's cross finding Simon Haworth on the edge of the area who fired a rocket past Kelly but his effort was ruled out by the Blackpol based referee who adjudged that the Welshman had fouled David Eyres on his way to goal.

HALF TIME: Oldham 1 Wigan 0

Wigan manager Bruce Rioch must have put a rocket up his team during the interval as his side came out with a lot more determination and purpose.

Keith Gillespie, who had been looking dangerous down the right midfield, raced down the line and drove a ball deep into Oldham's penalty area finding Simon Haworth closing in on goal but Haworth couldn't do enough with it and his attempt at goal was collected by a din\ving Kelly.

Just before the hour mark Haworth, supplied by Gillespie, curled a lovely ball just too wide of the far post.

Then Liddell also put a shot just wide of the post before Wigan got a deserved equaliser.

Lee Ashcroft combined with Sharp down the left wing who sent in a ball to the near post which Kelly got a glove to only for the ball to fall to SIMON HAWORTH and his header from close range beat Kelly and the defenders on the line to land in the back of the net.

Wigan should have then gone on to win but instead took their foot off the pedal and allowed Oldham back into the game and within ten minutes Carl Bradshaw made a terrible mistake in defence.

His short pass to McGibbon on the edge of the area found Carlo Corazzin via McGibbon's boot and Corazzin raced into the area and fired a rasping shot at goal which Stillie did well to block but the rebound returned the ball to Corazzin who cleverly squared it to MARK ALLOTT unmarked five yards out and he made no mistake in blasting into the back of the net.

Wigan manager Bruce rioch rang the changes bringing on Neil Roberts and Scott Green for Keith Gillespie and Carl Bradshaw in a bid to get back into the game but it wasn't to be and with the Wigan fans leaving the ground in their droves referee Mark Cowburn blew for full time to make it not such a festive Christmas for Wigan.

However with other results, apart from Millwall's 6-1 thrashing of Colchester United at The New Den, going Wigan's way, the defeat hasn't lost them too much ground in their promotion push.

The only bright note of the day was the fantastic following from Wigan with other 2,300 fans making the journey and many of them in fancy dress.