Preston North End 2-1 Wigan Athletic: Hosts complete turnaround against struggling Latics
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Preston North End ended a run of four Championship games without victory as they beat Wigan Athletic
Preston North End completed a second-half turnaround as they came from behind to beat Championship strugglers Wigan Athletic at Deepdale.
The visitors went ahead after almost 30 minutes when Christ Tiehi's shot cannoned off Greg Cunningham and into his own net.
North End levelled after the break when Daniel Johnson fired in from the spot after he was brought down by Latics keeper Ben Amos.
Tom Cannon scored the hosts' second just four minutes later but the finished the game with 10 men as Robbie Brady was shown a second yellow card deep into stoppage time.
Wigan came into the trip to Preston having drawn their past two games but they need victories in their pursuit of Championship survival, and they stay bottom following Shaun Maloney's first defeat in charge of the club.
Tiehi, who joined the Latics on loan from Slavia Prague in January, fired a dangerous shot towards goal which rebounded off Cunningham to send them ahead.
After regrouping at half-time, North End hit back with two quickfire goals to send them ahead, with Johnson making no mistake with his penalty while Cannon did well to find space in the box and turn home Alan Browne's delivery.
Brady, who came on as a second-half substitute in the 80th-minute, lasted just 15 minutes before he saw red for a bad tackle, as he picked up a second booking.
The Latics prop up the Championship and are four points adrift of safety, with fellow strugglers Blackpool, Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City all losing as well, and victory could have put them within a point of the 21st-placed Bluebirds.
Meanwhile, Preston move up to 12th in the table having ended a run of four games without a win, and are now eight points off the play-off places with 13 games still to play.
Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I've always got belief in my players and staff that we do things right to make sure they get a result.
"But one thing the players and squad have done is fought for the shirt and that's what they did today.
"The football wasn't pretty but they fought from half-time onwards to get three points and it's great character shown from the players today - I'm really pleased for them."
Wigan Athletic boss Shaun Maloney told BBC Radio Manchester:
"I don't think we performed well enough to win it. I don't think we did enough to lose either. There were some big moments in the second half where we didn't defend and that's why we conceded two goals.
"The actual penalty incident, having seen it again, I don't think it was a penalty. But I was probably more disappointed at how we got there. It came from deep in the Preston half and we didn't do what we've done in the past four games.
"I don't think they worked very hard for their goals today and that's the most disappointing thing."