REPORT: Shrewsbury Town 0 Wigan Athletic 1: Smith rocket sees Latics return to winning ways

The visitors had the first chance of the game with Martial Godo forcing a diving save from ex-Latics Academy goalkeeper Marko Marosi at full stretch.

And it was another Wigan old-boy, Tom Bayliss, who had Shrewsbury's first sight at goal, flicking on a header from a corner which only just missed the far post.

Shrewsbury then had the ball in the net but the flag was straight up for offside on the near side.

And Latics had another escape when Jason Kerr slipped as he let a long ball run past him, allowing Daniel Udoh to nip in.

The Shrews man went to ground as Kerr recovered and attempted to play it back to Sam Tickle, only for the referee to wave play on.

Tickle then made a fantastic save shortly after the restart to keep out a header from Udoh, with Kerr somehow managing to hack the ball to safety on the goalline.

But it was Latics who took the lead on 57 minutes, when Jordan Jones' corner was half-cleared to Matt Smith, who lashed the ball home from 12 yards for his first goal for the club.

Tickle did well to turn away a Mal Benning effort, before substitute Jonny Smith fed Thelo Aasgaard, who fired straight at Marosi.

And the final quarter was all Shrewsbury as they threw ball after ball into the Latics penalty area.

On one occasion, former Latics defender Chey Dunkley looked as though he'd headed home, only for the ball to drift just wide via a fortuitous deflection off a Wigan body.

Latics also had to negotiate a further ELEVEN minutes of added time before the official blew his final whistle.

The result sees Shaun Maloney’s men move up to 13th place ion the League One table, eight points above the relegation zone.

Without their eight-point deduction, they would be up in ninth spot, none points off the play-off spots.

The win did come at a cost, however, with Sean Clare picking up his 10th booking of the campaign – meaning an automatic two-match ban.