Burnley 3-0 Wigan Athletic: Nathan Tella scores twice for Championship leaders
- Published
Nathan Tella's two goals for Burnley against Wigan took his tally for the season to 16
Nathan Tella's double took Burnley to within sight of the Championship promotion winning post on another miserable afternoon for bottom club Wigan.
The on-loan Southampton striker took his goals tally to 16 for the season with two headers before Lyle Foster netted his first goal for the club after coming on as a substitute.
Wigan were up against it from the off, going behind to Tella's first goal after 14 minutes and then being reduced to 10 men before the half-hour mark by the dismissal of Omar Rekik for two yellow-card fouls on the lively Clarets striker.
The Latics spurned two big chances to equalise through substitute Steven Caulker and Ashley Fletcher, but Tella struck early in the second half to erase any further hopes of a shock comeback.
Burnley capped off another good afternoon's work as Foster grabbed the third on 76 minutes to make it 16 games unbeaten in the league and leave them needing a maximum of 14 points from their last 10 games to go straight up.
The Clarets had been quickly out of the blocks as they sought to ensure last week's goalless draw against struggling Blackpool was a blip, and after Anass Zaroury had struck the post, he delivered a pinpoint cross for Tella to dart in front of defender Ryan Nyambe and head the opener.
Tella was also too quick for Rekik after 29 minutes and the Latics defender, already on a yellow card for a foul on the pacy striker, lunged in to earn a red.
Remarkably Wigan then had two huge chances to level as Caulker headed goalwards from Tendayi Darikwa's cross, only for Arijanet Muric to produce an excellent point-blank save.
The Kosovo international keeper then came up with an even better stop to keep out Fletcher's shot after a mistake by Hjalmar Ekdal had sent the Wigan man running clear.
Wigan paid for those misses as Tella nodded in their second after Jordan Beyer had flicked on a corner, and South Africa international Foster - who moved to Turf Moor in January - fired in his first goal for the club after Michael Obafemi had cleverly touched Zaroury's cross into his path.
Burnley striker Nathan Tella told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"As a team we knew they would make it difficult for us but we were able to get the early goal and get the man sent off.
"The game really opened up for us, but we did make a few silly mistakes and credit to Ari, who saved us as we could have gone in at half time 2-1 down and it would have been a completely different game.
"When you have someone like him in goal you know every shot they have is going to be difficult - he did really well today.
"You can never be comfortable and 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline - they had nothing to lose, but we were thankfully able to see out the game with Lyle scoring a good goal, another good moment for the team.
Wigan boss Shaun Maloney told BBC Radio Manchester:
"It's been a difficult 48 hours or so. In terms of on the pitch I was super proud of the last half hour.
"Once you go down to ten men they are a very difficult team to play against and the players and supporters showed resilience. There's pride, which is not always the case after a 3-0 defeat, but [there] definitely was today.
On club's wages problem: "The lead-up to the game and preparation definitely affected not just the players but the support, staff, stadium staff and training ground, so it was an emotional couple of days, very difficult.
"It's a position I don't think any of us expected to be in so it's really difficult. It was difficult to train and prepare - the things off the pitch become bigger.
"For the last half hour the fans sang after me and the team and for what the players gave I am super-proud.
"When the CEO relayed it to us and the players it was the same reason as they put in the statement. We're hoping it's a short-term situation."