Report by John Patrick Heeley

Wigan Athletic suffered defeat at the hands of Reading courtesy of a piece of clinical finishing in the 69th minute of a tightly fought battle at the Madejski Stadium.

Wigan were virtually unchanged from the team that took on Notts County on Tuesday night, the only change cretake manager Colin Greenall made to the 16 was the introduction of Danish midfielder Stefan Bidstrup to the bench at the expense of leading scorer Simon Haworth.

Wigan had the better of the chances in the first half but were generally limited to shots from outside the area with Lee Ashcroft and Neil Roberts firing high over the bar in the early exchanges as both sides found it difficult to penetrate their opponent's defences.

Roberts did get into the area but fired wide of Reading keeper Phil Whitehead's far post from yards out after a good move down the field.

Reading's best chance of the half fell to fomer Kilmarnock striker Jim McIntyre sneaked in at the far post to get on the end of a free kick that had looked to be going over the line but he managed to get a foot to it and forced Carroll into a good save low at the foot of the upright.

Andy Liddell and then Ged Brannan then both had attempts from 20 yards out but again both shots went sailing into the stand behind Whitehead's goal.

Neil Roberts was dropped with a late tackle from Chorley born Phil Parkinson, earning the Reading midfielder the first yellow card of the game, before Darren Sheridan went close with a long range effort, this time only inches over the bar.

Reading came out for the second half without leading scorer Jamie Cureton as he was replaced by Tony Rougier and within minutes of the restart the Trinidad and Tobago international striker put in a cross into the area finding Martin Butler's head but his purchase on the ball could have been better and Wigan were let off.

Darren Caskey then put Rougier through on goal but his shot caused no problem for Roy Carroll.

Wigan's Neil Roberts had a goal disallowed in the 53rd minute for offside. Lee McCulloch, Wigan's recent record signing from Motherwell, nodded down a cross into the area to Roberts who fired it on the volley into the roof of the Reading net but the Welshman was adjudged to have been marginally offside.

Reading immediately raced upfield and Butler fired a shot wide from another cross from Rougier. The home side were getting more and more back into the game and were looking a lot more dangerous on the break than in the first half.

Reading got their all important winner in the 69th minute following a break down the right from Wigan's half of the field. Young midfielder James Harper, signed from Arsenal less than a fortnight ago, got the ball down the right flank and raced down to the byeline before putting in a low cross across the face of goal with deceived the Wigan defence and found JIM MCINTYRE running in at the far post hitting it first time in off the near post.

Wigan pressed forward in search of an equaliser but were again frustrated by the strong Reading defence and the closest they came was a header from Neil Roberts from the penalty spot after he got on the end of a Steve McMillan cross but there wasn't sufficient power in his effort and Whitehead caught easily.

Carroll was forced into a fingertip save from James Harper and Martin Butler was a whisker away from doubling the home side's lead as the game came to a finish.

Wigan did push forward in an attempt to grab a deserved point but as throughout the 90 minutes found the Reading defence's resolve well up to the task.

The result moved Reading into third place and in contention for one of the automatic promotion slots, leaving Wigan to face the prospect of a third successive play-off lottery.