Report by John Patrick Heeley

Wigan Athletic will have to put up with another season in Division Two after losing out to Reading in the play-off semi final at the Madejski Stadium after two late strikes from Martin Butler and Nicky Forster cancelled out Kevin Nicholls first half opener.

For the third successive season Wigan have failed to progress through the end of season lottery but must take consolation in the fact that the team are now playing with confidence, something that has been lacking for the majority of the season, and build for the future.

A record crowd of 22,034 crammed into the Madejski Stadium for the second leg and were rewarded for their support with a game full of passion and plenty of action.

Wigan manager Steve Bruce made just one change to the starting line up from Sunday's first leg, promoting Simon Haworth from the bench to replace Lee McCulloch who had failed to get himself fit after suffering a dead leg in a collision with Reading keeper Phil Whitehead at the JJB Stadium.

Gareth Griffiths returned from injury to take up the vacant seat on the bench.

Wigan started the game brightly and dominated the opening period of the game and limited Reading to only one chance of note in the opening exchanges with Sammy Igoe failing to capitalise on a Jamie Cureton cross in the 10th minute, putting his shot wide.

The game had to be held up in the 18th minute when referee David Laws sensibly decided that blue and white balloons, that had been released in the pre-match build up were now cluttering the pitch, needed to be removed as players were having difficulty avoiding them.

Reading defender Adie Williams fouled Simon Haworth just outside the penalty area with just over 25 minutes on the clock and from the resulting free kick Roberto Martinez and Scott Green combined to square the ball across to KEVIN NICHOLLS who drove the ball past the wall from 20 yards out and into the bottom corner for his first goal in a Latics shirt since his transfer from Charlton Athletic two years ago.

The game was halted for a second time around five minutes later when a Reading fan, obviously the worse for wear, ran onto the playing surface to confront Wigan's Scott Green.

Green for his credit stepped back and players from both sides wrestled him to the ground allowing stewards to remove the offender from the ground.

Why he had picked on Scott Green I have no idea but if it was a random attack he probably chose unwisely as he definitely not one to be messed with.

Wigan nearly doubled the lead early in the second half through Peter Beagrie who weaved his way forward and hit a low drive goalwards but Phil Whitehead got down well low to his left to palm away from danger with the ball heading for the bottom corner.

Reading made two changes during the first ten minutes of the half bringing on James Harper and Tony Rougier to replace Caskey and Jim McIntyre respectively.

The pair seemed to inject a bit more life into the home side and from then on the majority of forward moves seemed to come from Reading but the Wigan defence coped admirably with everything thrown at them, Arjan De Zeeuw and Pat McGibbon were in superb form in the centre of the rearguard.

Wigan looked to have held out for their fourth successive victory on the travels but with the scoreboard indicating less than five minutes remaining Reading got the dreaded equaliser.

Substitute Nicky Forster, the scorer of the equalising goal against Bournemouth on the last day of the season, beat Kevin Sharp down the right flank and whipped in a low ball into the middle of the area.

Roy Carroll got a hand to it but unfortunately for Latics MARTIN BUTLER was on hand to gratefully receive the loose ball and knock it in from yards out.

This sparked the home crowd, swelled by the occasion, into life and get behind their team with probably most of them thinking that they were heading for defeat prior to Butler's strike.

The game was entering into stoppage time and heading for another 30 minutes of play when Wigan's world caved in around them.

Forster raced into the area when he went crashing down under challenge from Kevin Sharp.

The Whitley Bay official was unconvinced by the home side's appeals for a penalty, but on looking over to his assistant running the line down that side, pointed to the spot after the assistant raised his flag to indicate an infringement.

Wigan were furious and manager Steve Bruce fumed later that Sharp had in fact won the ball but with only time added on to play leading goalscorer Jamie Cureton stepped up for his chance to put Reading into the final and one game from a return to Division One.

Roy Carroll had other ideas and dove to his left to push Cureton's effort away but Wigan's rejoicing was short lived as NICKY FORSTER pounced on the loose ball and drilled into the far corner from an acute angle to seal the game.

A pitch invasion from the home fans held the game up for a few minutes with mounted police called upon to clear the playing surface before play could be resumed.

Wigan threw everything forward in an attempt to push the game into exta time and were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area but Nicholls couldn't add to his opening goal when he drove the ball over Whitehead's bar and into the crowd.

The final whistle saw the Reading fans race onto the pitch and again prompted the police horses on to keep a minority of them from provoking the 1,500 travelling Wigan supporters behind the goal.

Gutted is not the word as the Latics fans eventually trudged from the stadium and back up the motorway with the prospect of another season in Division Two.

However, as the old addage goes, there's always next year but the Wigan officials will now have a difficult couple of weeks as they write up their retained list and decide on the future of Steve Bruce who has only been in charge for a matter of weeks but has already instilled his influence into the camp.