Wigan Athletic boosted their Sky Bet League One survival hopes with a huge three points over Bradford City thanks to goals from Caylan Vickers & Joe Taylor at the Brick Community Stadium.                                                                                                                                    

Latics hosted their second home fixture of the week and were targeting a positive response after Tuesday's heavy loss against Plymouth Argyle. The task at hand was a big challenge for Caldwell's men, locking horns with a Bradford side who have been one of the surprise packages this term. The Bantams have adapted impressively to life at this level and going into the game were sitting ten points clear of seventh-placed Reading.                                       

Bradford City, who had been promoted last season, are looking to complete a remarkable campaign by returning to the Championship after a lengthy absence. They have several familiar faces in their ranks. Curtis Tilt, Lee Evans, Max Power, Nick Powell, Stephen Humphrys, and Paul Mullin are all part of the Bantams’ squad, while former Wigan Athletic Chairman David Sharpe has also played a key role behind the scenes as the Club’s Head of Operations.                                                                                                                            

Latics were determined to harness the clubs support and begin the run-in with a positive result on home turf and Caldwell made four changes from the midweek defeat. Llyton Chapman, Raphael Borges Rodrigues, Callum Wright, and Caylan Vickers replaced Luke Robinson, Callum McManaman, Matt Smith, and Christian Saydee in the starting XI.                          

Both Latics and Bradford began brightly as they looked to get an early foothold in the game. Wigan had the better of the early chances as first, nice play between Fraser Murray and Chapman led to the latter feeding Wright just outside the 18-yard box, where he dropped a shoulder, drove into the box and saw an effort blocked for a corner. Then Owen Moxon fed Caylan Vickers on the edge of the box, who took one touch before shooting but he dragged his shot inches wide of the post.                                                                                               

Latics made the next chance count. A lovely midfield-splitting pass away from oncoming pressure by Chapman found Wright, who was allowed to drive forward and get his side on the attack. He eventually fed Murray for a first-time cross, where Vickers picked the ball up and turned before rifled a cross shot into the top corner.                                                            

The remainder of the half was full of endeavour but low on quality and neither keeper had much to do to keep the scoreline down.

Half Time; Wigan Athletic 1-0 Bradford City.

Two half-time changes for the visitors in former Latics men, Paul Mullin and Stephen Humphrys, sparked a bit of life into Graham Alexander's men and almost saw them equalise after Mullin chased down a loose ball and slid to almost find Jenson Metcalfe, but Sam Tickle was alert to smother the ball and relieve any pressure. 

Bradford were having more possession and on two occasions crosses flew across the face of the home goal. Wigan looked bright on the counterattack, and the pace of Taylor was always a threat. An early chance went begging for the Latics number 10 when he stung the palms of Walker in the Bradford goal, but when another chance fell his way, the on-loan man delivered.                                                                                                                                                          

A mistake in the Bradford midfield allowed Taylor to spring forward and pick the pocket of Metcalfe to burst through on goal from the halfway line and flash a sweetly struck drive into the bottom corner of the net.                                                                                          

With a two-goal cushion Wigan went into game management mode to see out the remaining minutes with relative comfort.                                                                                             

For Latics this was a huge win in front of the home supporters to push them up the table and three points closer to Sky Bet League One safety.