Wigan Athletic 1 Rotherham United 2
Last updated : 27 December 2003 By Paul Farrington
The 17 year old striker made a dramatic appearance on the hour with Rotherham seemingly content for a share of the spoils, but he stunned the home fans with a superb two-goal blast to extend Rotherham's unbeaten run to an impressive eight games.
For much of the game however it was a different story as Wigan had the upper hand against a Rotherham outfit seemingly content to soak up the pressure and hit the home side on the break.
Rotherham didn't have an effort on goal until after the hour and when manager Ronnie Moore replaced strikers Martin Butler and Darren Byfield with Shaun Barker and Hoskins it seemed a draw was what Rotherham were satisfied with.
But Hoskins had other ideas and in the 81st minute he slotted home a low drive from the six-yard box after picking up a through ball from John Mullin and two minutes later he struck again with a cracking drive from the edge of the area as the Wigan defence backed off.
Nathan Ellington pulled a goal back in injury time but it was too little too late and Wigan were left to reflect on the opening half when they pressured an overworked Rotherham defence, but saw keeper Mike Pollitt make three outstanding saves.
Player Ratings
John Filan 5
Nicky Eaden 4
Leighton Baines 7 - M-O-M
Ian Breckin 5
Jason De Vos 4
Mike Flynn 3
Gary Teale 5
Jason Jarrett 5
Jimmy Bullard 5
Lee McCulloch 6
Nathan Ellington 7
Manager Comments
Paul Jewell - "We knew we would have the majority of play, but then we got dealt a sucker punch really. We had plenty of chances but we didn't show enough guile or craft in and around the penalty box. We saw a lot of the ball and we had a lot of decent chances but we didn't take them."
"At worst I think we should have got a 0-0 draw, but from our point of view I thought the two goals we conceded were defensively poor. We have to look at the overall position, were still sixth in the First Division at Christmas time."
"We're not kidding ourselves though, we know we need to improve and bring one or two new players in but that is proving more difficult than some people might imagine. We are looking at one or two additions and hopefully they will be here by the time we play Millwall".
Ronnie Moore - "I brought Will on because I thought the lads up front had worked hard but they looked a bit tired and weren't getting enough balls in to them. Nobody knows Will Hoskins, he has deserved his chance. last time he just went on for 30 seconds, this time he had a good half an hour and he proved to me and people watching what a talent he is.
"We just have to be careful we don't throw him in too early and I will do it the way I want to do. Darren Byfield and Martin Butler now know they have a threat, not just from Will but from Richie Barker as well because he won an awful lot of balls when he came on. That put us in the front foot instead of the back foot and it helps to rotate the system for us.
"It was a dour game and at one stage it looked as if it was going to be 0-0 because we hadn't had a shot in the first half. I was disappointed with the way we played in the first half, we gave the ball away far too cheaply.
"Wigan have some good quality but there is one thing about our lads, they are organised but he difference was Will Hoskins who took his goals from what I didn't even think were chances. He put the ball away as if he has been playing for donkeys years while Mike Pollitt made a couple of good saves but we defended well.
"The disappointing thing was that we conceded a goal so late, it would have been nice to have kept another clean sheet, I am just glad there wasn't any more time left.
"I am well pleased for the lads, they have had a good run and anyone playing us at the moment will know they have been in a game. Now we are looking forward to a big game and a big game against Sunderland on Sunday."
External Reports
Wigan Athletic Official Site
Ananova
Pink Football
BBC Sport
