3/1 To Win
Derby County picked up their second consecutive win after defeating Wigan Athletic 1-0 at DW Stadium.
Jack Marriott directed his header past Christian Walton in the first-half after Jayden Bogle whipped in a cross from the right for the only goal of the game.
The Rams took the lead just six minutes after Wigan were reduced to 10 men as Kal Naismith was shown red for hauling down Harry Wilson on the edge of the box.
The victory takes the Rams to third in the Sky Bet Championship table.
Both sides had an opportunity to take the lead within the opening ten minutes with the Latics making the first move. Nathan Byrne flung a cross in from the left which Scott Carson did well to get down and collect.
Jayden Bogle then called Christian Walton into action after the young full-back received a long pass from Mason Mount before charging into the right side of the area. He unleashed from close range but the Latics stopper did well to bat it away.
After just 15 minutes, Wigan were down to 10 men when Kal Naismith was shown a straight red card for hauling Harry Wilson down on the edge of the box as he ran clear onto a long pass from Marriott and was set to take Walton on one-on-one.
It didn’t take long for the Rams to capitalise on their man advantage as Bogle, who had been doing an excellent job down the right flank had time to pick out Marriott on the back post to head past Walton.
Derby were fully in control of the half now and almost doubled their lead before he half hour mark when Wilson collected a cross by Marriott and fired on target but Byrne kept the home side in the game as he cleared the shot off the line.
Wigan were now struggling to contain the Rams who were holding the lion’s share of possession and pushing forward. Tom Lawrence had a couple of decent looks but shot wide while Mount forced a strong save by Walton from 25-yards out.
The home side regained some composure in the second-half and had a good chance to equalise juts after the hour mark when Josh Windass squared to Reece James who was one-on-one with Carson. But James’ shot was a comfortable stop for Carson.
The Rams didn’t carve out any clear chances in the second-half as they kept the Latics at bay. Despite Wigan’s efforts to push forward, however, they failed to find the answer to Marriott’s first-half header.
Wigan Athletic: Walton; James, Kipre, Burn, Naismith; Byrne, Evans, Morsy, Roberts (Connolly,30); Windass(Garner, 83); Vaughan (Gibson, 30)
Unused Subs: Jones, Grigg, Bruce, McManaman,
Derby County: Carson; Bogle, Keogh (C), Tomori, Malone, Mount, Huddlestone, Bryson(Holmes, 76); Wilson (Jozefzoon, 71), Marriott (Nugent, 89), Lawrence
Unused Subs: Roos, Waghorn, Pearce, Macdonald
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
Frank Lampard’s side return to Pride Park Stadium for the East Midlands Derby on Monday 17th December.
Nottingham Forest, who sit three points behind Derby, will be the first of two visitors that week as the Rams then host Bristol City on Saturday 22nd December.
