A strong late rally from Wigan Town handed them the three points in a well fought out battle on Saturday at Banky Lane.

Both sides started brightly, Niall Goldrick and Joel Riley both having early shots but neither able to hit the target. Wigan also created a couple of half chances but Greenwood and Roach stood firm.

Joel Riley went close to giving the home side the lead

On 32 mins the home side had a great shout for a penalty, Riley shooting from long range and the Wigan defender had his hands raised in an unnatural position, but the referee didn’t agree and waved play on.

Minutes later Riley also appeared to handle the ball and again the referee played on, this time the ball ran and sent Riley through on a one-on-one with e keeper but his finish was poor.

HT: Mersey Valley 0 Wigan Town 0

Johnson replaced Howarth and straight away caused problems in the box, his shot was blocked, Mike Woolley followed up and forced the Wigan keeper into a good save.

Man of the Match Alex Gorst made a number of great saves

Wigan also started to create good chances, Gorst made two brilliant saves as the game started to become very open.

Valley looked disjointed and the midfield was not able to get any control in the game, Wigan took control and took the lead on 70 minutes after a scramble in the box.

The home side tried to throw everything at Wigan but quality in the final third let them down and Wigan grabbed a second goal in the 90th minute from the penalty spot.

There was late drama, Baroudi pulled a goal back and then had a great chance to equalise but brilliant defending from Wigan saved the day and the three points went back to Lancashire – a deserved victory for the visitors.

FT: Mersey Valley 1 Wigan Town 2

After the game we caught up with manager Jon Hudson.

A frustrating afternoon and hopefully just a bad day. We started ok but we just didn’t perform today, we never really got going and too many players were below par. I thought Wigan Town were excellent today, they never stopped working for each other and looked like a real team – something we still need to do. We will carry on working hard at training and bounce back next game. We’ve got a huge test on Friday night in Chester and we really need to step up against higher level opposition.