Wigan 2-2 Cardiff

E-mail your reaction to Football Talk

Cardiff striker Robert Earnshaw's 12th goal of the season denied Wigan their fourth home win of the campaign.

Earnshaw's double means he has now scored six times in Cardiff's last three league games and Lennie Lawrence's side are unbeaten on their travels in Division Two since February.

It was the visitors who threatened first with Gary Croft's curling left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area going over the crossbar.

Cardiff defender Spencer Prior was booked for dissent and from the resulting free-kick, Neil Roberts had a fierce strike parried by John Filan.

Wigan broke downfield shortly after and Graham Kavanagh's ball in from the left was swept into the top corner by the predatory Earnshaw.

Paul Jewell's side responded in the best possible fashion, Tony Dinning lashing home a brilliant shot from the edge of the area following good work by Stephen McMillan.

The hosts then stormed ahead in what was turning out to be an absorbing encounter when in-form Nathan Ellington, who scored a marvellous hat-trick to dump West Brom out of the Worthington Cup in midweek, prodded home Dinning's left-wing cross.

Ellington could have made it three but he failed to get enough purchase on a header which drifted wide before midfielder Kavanagh spurned a glorious opportunity to level at the other end.

McMillan almost gave Wigan a two-goal cushion when his left-foot shot from close range was tipped around the post by Cardiff goalkeeper Neil Alexander.

But Earnshaw had the last word when he slotted the ball home following Peter Thorne's flick-on.

---

Wigan: Filan, Eaden, De Vos, Jackson, McMillan, Green, Dinning, Jarrett, McCulloch, Roberts, Ellington. Subs: Yeomans, Flynn, Teale, Mitchell, Ashcroft.

Cardiff: Alexander, Weston, Gabbidon, Prior, Croft, Boland, Kavanagh, Whalley, Fortune-West, Earnshaw, Thorne. Subs: Legg, Barker, Campbell, Maxwell, Margetson.

Referee: E Wolstenholme (Lancashire).