Premier League: Sunderland 1 Wigan 2

Wigan Athletic broke a run of nine winless games, with a 2-1 win away at Sunderland to climb off the bottom of the Premier League table.

Latics manager Roberto Martinez seemed content with a point as his side defended resolutely in the second half, but his late introduction of striker Franco Di Santo proved decisive, as the Argentine struck in injury time to seal the three points.

Sebastian Larsson opened the scoring for the home side early, but Wigan pegged back before the interval to bring the score level at half via a Jodi Gomez penalty, before Di Santo’s late strike won it for Wigan.

After a brief melee inside the eight-yard box, Larsson slammed the ball into the Wigan net to give the home side a 1-0 lead through eight minutes.

On 14 minutes, former Manchester United teammates combined as John O’Shea sent Kieran Richardson through to fire near-post, but the Wigan keeper Ali Al-Habsi redeemed himself with the save.

The home side continued to control most of the possession throughout the first half, but they were unable to double their lead despite their ascendency.

Phil Bardsley missed a gilt-edged chance on 39 minutes after more slick passing from the Black Cats opened up Wigan’s left side, allowing Richardson to get in behind and pass square to the wide-open left-back Bardsley, only for him to sky his shot over the bar from close range.

Wigan equalized just before half-time. Victor Moses moved past O’Shea, and a recovering Larsson nicked his heels. The Nigerian went down and referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot despite wild Sunderland protests.

The replays vindicated the referee’s decision, and Gomez coolly slotted the spot kick low and right as Sunderland stand-in ‘keeper Kieran Westwood dived the other way.

Spurned chances turned out to haunt Sunderland cruelly when Wigan nabbed all three points at the death.

A punted clearance seemed to be controlled by the Sunderland defence, but Brown was overly casual with his goalie’s pass, allowing Di Santo to plunder the spoils by slotting into an open net.

With the victory, Wigan move clear of bottom into 19th place as Blackburn Rovers lost 3-1 at Stoke.