Wanderers hit Wigan with a Gale-Forss to end a decade of home hurt, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites hadn’t won anywhere against their derby rivals for 10 years before victory at Wigan in April.
And having ended the hoodoo, the fans were finally able to celebrate a home win as Steven Schuamcher’s men blew the Latics away to erase some painful recent memories.
Three straight losses without scoring a goal at the Toughsheet Stadium had hurt but this new-look team quickly made amends as Thierry Gale, Marcus Forss and top scorer Mason Burstow rattled in three goals before half-time.
Wigan were blown away and when on-loan Middlesbrough man Forss capped an outstanding full league debut for the Whites just after half-time with his second goal a role reversal of the visitors’ recent back-to-back 4-0 wins was on the cards.
Paul Mullin made sure that wasn’t the case with a well-taken effort of his own to deny Wanderers the satisfaction of a clean sheet as they extended their unbeaten run to eight league games.
But that apart, there could be no complaints on a day when the brilliant Whites bared their teeth to show what they are capable of with a third home win of the season which took them above Wigan and continued their climb up the table on their best day so far.
Forss was one of two coming into the Whites starting line-up on the back of a fifth draw of the campaign a week earlier as Ethan Erhahon also reclaimed a starting spot.
And things couldn’t have gone much better for Wanderers in a dominant first half, bar the addition of even more goals from a constant examination of the Wigan defence.
Much of that came from the wide positions early on as Gale and Amario Cozier-Duberry spearheaded the threat after being played in behind the visitors’ over-worked back line.
Goalkeeper Sam Tickle twice came to their rescue by dashing off his line to nick the ball off the wingers’ toes and also had to save from both the Wanderers’ widemen when they cut in to test his handling in the wet conditions.
The England under-21 man dealt with those but even he was powerless to stop Wanderers romping into a three-goal lead at the break.
Fittingly it was the dynamic Gale who broke the deadlock after 15 minutes when he rammed the ball into the roof of the net from Josh Dacres-Cogley’s low ball across goal to claim his first goal in the EFL.
And the winger then created the second after running onto Max Conway’s pass to set up Forss for a powerful side-foot finish just five minutes later.
Wanderers could and should have added more, Gale running clear just before half-time but again not quite managing to get the better of Tickle.
But by then it was three thanks to a fantastic strike from Burstow who had the pace and power to wriggle free of the Latics’ defence and rifle a low shot into the bottom corner of the net from 25 yards to claim his fifth goal of the campaign.
Most of those in a crowd of 25,565 – Wanderers’ third biggest regular league attendance in the stadium post their Premier League days – were loving it and waiting for more in a second half which started with three changes from the bench from the Latics as they looked to try and find a way back into the game or, at least, limit the damage.
That plan didn’t last long, however, as just five minutes after the re-start it was 4-0 as the shell-shocked visitors gifted a second for Forss, who intercepted a headed-back pass from Morgan Fox to again show his quality with another cool first-time finish.
Wigan had spent most of the afternoon on the back foot but in Mullin they have a player capable of finding a goal out of nothing and the on-loan Wrexham man did that with an opportunistic strike shortly afterwards, curling the ball into the corner as a warning to Wanderers not to take their foot off the gas.
That was heeded as Wigan showed some fight and while there was to be no fifth goal at the other end, Xavier Simons going closest, Wanderers’ work had long been done as they righted a few wrongs and potentially got their season into top gear.
Wanderers: Sharman-Lowe; Dacres-Cogley, Forino, Johnston, Conway; Simons, Erhahon (Morley 84); Cozier-Duberry, Forss (Dalby 58), Gale (Cissoko 68); Burstow (Sheehan 84). Substitutes: Miller, Randall, Toal.
Booked: None
Wigan: Tickle; Sessegnon (McManaman 84), Aimson, Fox; Murray, Smith (Wright 69), Adeeko (Asamoah HT), Hungbo (Rodrigues HT); Trevitt, Costelloe (Robinson HT), Mullin. Substitutes: Savin, Cooper.
Booked: Hungbo
Attendance: 25,565 (3,504)