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0 Wigan remain rooted to the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship after suffering a second home defeat to Luton in the space of four days – with the Hatters easing to a 2-0 win.
The two sides must be sick of the sight of each other, given this was the third meeting already in 2023, and the fourth of the campaign.
Having won on this ground in midweek to advance to the fourth round of the FA Cup, Luton started the brighter and took only 11 minutes to open the scoring.
Wigan only had themselves to blame, with two of their three January signings – Miguel Azeez and Steven Caulker – involved in a defensive muddle.
That allowed Harry Cornick to nip in and seize possession and, after holding off an attempted foul, he found the Wigan net via a sizeable deflection that deceived goalkeeper Ben Amos.
Wigan continued to try to play it out from the back at every opportunity, although the players did not seem totally at ease in doing so.
Luton threatened again when Elijah Adebayo got himself free down the left channel, but his powerful shot beat the far post as well as the diving Amos.
Wigan thought they had levelled midway through the first period when Ashley Fletcher sent a bullet header from Charlie Hughes’ pinpoint cross into the top corner of Ethan Horvath’s net.
Unfortunately for the home side, the flag was up on the far side for a very marginal offside call.
Fletcher was then close to getting on the end of a drilled cross from Max Power, only for a lunging defender to divert the ball behind for a corner.
Wigan desperately needed to score the next goal, but it was the visitors who doubled their lead nine minutes after the restart.
Again it was a poor goal for Wigan to concede, with Curtis Tilt being left for dead by Elijah Adebayo, who collected a return pass from Cornick before slotting past Amos with ease.
The frustration inside the ground became evident when loud booing greeted a double Wigan substitution, with the home fans venting their displeasure at seeing Hughes and Azeez – two of their better performers – make way for Thelo Aasgaard and Callum Lang.
Midfielder Christ Tiehi – making his Wigan debut after a loan move from Slovan Liberec – shot just wide as Wigan tried to rally.
But the visitors looked just as likely if not more so to find another goal, as the confidence of the Wigan players visibly slipped away as time ticked by.
The Hatters are now out of the play-off positions on goal difference only, while Wigan look like they’ll need every single one of the 16 days until their next fixture to regroup.
