Wigan Athletic 1-0 Blackburn Rovers: Nathan Broadhead winner earns Latics first home victory of season

Wigan claimed a first home win of the Championship season by edging an uninspiring north west derby against blunted Blackburn.

Rovers would have climbed back into the top six with a point but failed to register a shot on target, with top scorer Ben Brereton Diaz firing their best opening wide.

They remain seventh, two places above Leam Richardson’s Latics who leap seven places from 16th to ninth with a scrappy but deserved victory.

Wigan, promoted last season as League One champions, began the evening with the second tier’s worst home record after drawing three and losing three of their six games at the DW Stadium.

The Latics, whose away return of 13 points from 18 is the Championship’s best, belied that poor home sequence in a first half they controlled confidently, albeit without sustaining consistent pressure.

Tom Naylor sent a stooping header wide from Max Power’s near-post free-kick and the lively Broadhead cut in from the right only to shoot straight at Kaminski.

The hosts’ best opening came from a Blackburn mistake as leading marksman Keane robbed Scott Wharton just inside Rovers’ half and advanced to unleash a 20-yard shot the keeper punched clear.

But it was Keane’s harrying that would help to break the deadlock as he robbed Tyler Morton in the Blackburn box and Broadhead was on hand to poke home after Kaminski’s instinctive stop.

Rovers rarely threatened a leveller although Brereton Diaz should have done better than flash wide of Ben Amos’ near post when he was found unmarked 15 yards out.

Defeat continued Blackburn’s up and down start under Jon Dahl Tomasson – Rovers have alternated four wins and five losses in their past nine games and are yet to draw a match this season.

They have lost five of their past six away games, failing to score in each defeat and visit managerless Middlesbrough on Saturday, while Wigan also travel to the north east to face Sunderland.

Wigan Athletic boss Leam Richardson told BBC Radio Manchester:

“It’s a credit to the players and staff about the work ethic we’ve put in. We’ve come up from League One together, the lads work tirelessly and there’s a challenge every 72 hours at the minute.

“If you’re going to be genuine, we probably worked hard enough to get the right result tonight because we were up against a fantastic team with some great players, a good manager and they asked a lot of questions.

“They’re a good counter-attacking team and we had to be mindful of that in the middle of the pitch.”