REPORT: Wigan Athletic 2 Northampton Town 1 - Tickle heroics see Latics over the line
Sam Tickle produced a stunning second-half goalkeeping masterclass to ensure Wigan Athletic didn’t throw away three points their first-half display undoubtedly merited.
Wigan came flying out of the blocks and should have been ahead even before Thelo Aasgaard opened the scoring on 11 minutes.
Silko Thomas had ignored the unmarked Dale Taylor and Steven Sessegnon before firing over the top from the edge of the box.
Aasgaard showed him how it's done moments later, when he rifled past Lee Burge, who got his hand to the shot but couldn't keep it out.
Before Northampton could regroup, Jonny Smith doubled the lead seven minutes later, with a superb left-foot strike from 25 yards that flew into the top corner of the net.
It was all Wigan at this point and Taylor sent a stinging shot just over the top.
The home side came even closer just before the break when Toby Sibbick pulled the ball back into the path of Jensen Weir, whose close-range shot hit a defender on the line rather than the other way round.
Sibbick found Weir again shortly after the restart, with the midfielder's shot this time flying wide.
And the visitors gave themselves a lifeline 11 minutes into the second period when half-time substitute Tom Eaves halved the arrears from four yards.
The final half-hour saw Northampton launching the ball into the Wigan box, and the equaliser almost arrived with five minutes to go.
Liam McCarron found himself clean through, one-on-one with Tickle, with time and space to pick his spot.
However, the Young England stopper stood firm and diverted the ball past the post for a corner.
And after Aasgaard had seen a long-range shot saved, Tickle saved his best for stoppage-time.
First, he diverted a dangerous ball into the box away with his foot, before pulling off a stupendous save to deny substitute Sam Hoskins, who couldn't have hit his volley any sweeter.