Mac the knife

YOU can bet your life Pat McGibbon won't be on Brian Reid's Christmas card list this winter.

New father Reid was just moments away from completing the perfect week when McGibbon popped up to dampen his celebrations.

Four days after his wife Christine had given birth to their first son, the Scotsman opened his goalscoring account for his new club.

His 68th-minute effort also promised to give him his opening win in a Burnley shirt at the fifth time of asking, until McGibbon headed home an injury-time equaliser to make the journey back up to Reid's Scottish home seem just that bit longer.

It was also a collective blow for Burnley who have lost the winning habit and acquired the annoying one of conceding damaging late goals.

Three times this season the Clarets have now succumbed right at the death which has cost them five points and several places in the table. To add insult to injury Wigan's equaliser could be traced to a highly dubious free-kick from which the visitors earned the corner that produced McGibbon's point-saver.

Chris Brass seemed to clearly win the ball when substitute Roberto Martinez went tumbling 25 yards from goal.

But to counter that argument the danger could have been averted if Gavin Ward had gathered David Lee's free-kick more tidily.

The clean sheet that Burnley have so far found elusive this season was therefore duly torn up which was rough on the remodelled three-man defence employed by Stan Ternent.

The Clarets' boss handed a full debut to 18-year-old Matt Heywood to replace the suspended Peter Swan and like the line of youngsters that have gone before him this season he did everything asked of him.

And Reid, in addition to his goal, had his best game yet as he enjoyed the freedom provided by the excellent Gordon Armstrong at sweeper to make a number of forward bursts.

Out wide, Burnley had plenty to keep Wigan quiet with Glen Little and Chris Scott largely bottling up the right side and Mark Robertson and the returning Paul Smith doing similar on the left.

Lee, so often a thorn in the Clarets' side, made little impact as he was generally held up in a deep position and when he did get further forward the Wigan winger didn't have his crossing boots on.

Brass, sporting a close-cropped hair cut, held things together from a central position but despite the solid platform Burnley didn't click into gear on a consistent basis going forward and still look as though they need another forceful character to orchestrate things.

And with Wigan looking unlikely to find a route to goal - despite the superiority of their shot count, most of which were directly harmlessly at Ward - it made for a less than gripping spectacle.

As a result Reid's calmly taken goal out of the blue mid-way through the second half had every reason to look like the winner.

Roy Carroll was at fault when he spilled a Smith free-kick under pressure from Andy Payton and Reid confirmed the deftness of his touch with a measured lob past the stranded keeper into the unguarded net. That turned out to be Burnley's solitary shot on target and while that statistic doesn't tell the whole story - in addition to a couple of decent openings the Clarets felt they had two legitimate claims for penalties for hand-ball, one in each half, to deny Payton and Little - it underlined what a bonus the three points would have been.

Little was again Burnley's most creative source while Wigan's best moments came when recent signing Michael O'Neill was involved.

The Northern Ireland international had a purple patch in the first half when he found his range with a couple of telling through-balls, one of which gave Stuart Barlow the chance to test Ward with a fierce drive which was well hit but which didn't require the Burnley keeper to move.

For Burnley, Armstrong volleyed over following another of his early forward sorties.

And Payton was thwarted by the legs of Colin Greenall and then seemingly by a defender's elbow as he met Little's cross with a header that ended up on the top of the net.

But just when it was beginning to look as though the deadlock wouldn't be broken Reid, who had earlier headed over from a Smith corner, ended the stalemate with his first goal in English football.

There was little suggestion of a second for Burnley despite Smith's more advanced role.

But that didn't appear to matter as Wigan had little to offer bar a glancing header from Barlow and a looping Lee cross that Brass bravely headed out from under the bar.

The single-goal lead provided no margin for error though and when Wigan were presented with one final opportunity to gain some reward they gratefully accepted it to keep major progress for Burnley on hold.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.