Wigan Athletic boss happy to take win after 'anxiety' of Royals rumble

Latics had gone into the game with a five-point buffer over their opponents, who occupied the fourth-bottom spot in League One.

A win for Reading would have cut that deficit to just two, and had Latics looking worryingly over their shoulders.

However, Thelo Aasgaard's magnificent strike just after the half-hour - worthy of winning any game - won the game.

The win takes Latics - who were deducted eight points last summer for offences committed under the previous ownership - up to 13th in the standings, which is their highest position of the season.

And Maloney could not hide his delight - and relief - as he assessed a potentially priceless three points.

"It was a really big win, you could probably tell by the second half, and the anxiety in the stands," he said. "It was a really big game, and we had to show both sides.

"The first half, I really liked, we created two or three opportunities that, on another day if we'd taken, could have made it a very different story.

"But that's football, Reading knew it was a big game as well, and they threw everything at us in that second half.

"We required a big save from our goalkeeper right at the end, and also a massive amount of effort across the board.

"We had to show both sides today, because there's not too much between the two teams.

"I like their manager, I like how he coaches, and thankfully we came out on the positive side of the result.

"We got beat 2-0 at Reading just before Christmas, and I was actually really happy with the way we played in large parts of the game.

"The first half here felt similar, very good defensively, but this time we had a little bit more in attack.

“We’ve got young lads, and I have to show them support during the hardest times to keep playing, and they’ll get better for sure.

“We had to show everything today, and thankfully we were on the end of a positive result."

Martial Godo had an early chance to open the scoring, only to be denied by David Button, before the on-loan Fulham man picked up a worrying knock that eventually caused his substitution.

After Sean Clare had made a stupendous block to deny Harvey Knibbs, Aasgaard scored what proved to be the winner on 32 minutes.

Receiving the ball after a clever flick from on-loan Liverpool defender Luke Chambers, Aasgaard steadied himself before curling a beautiful shot into the far corner of the net.

Liam Morrison – who took over from Wigan captain Josh Magennis early in the second half - immediately tested Button with a firm header from a corner, which was well saved.

And it was almost 2-0 when Matt Smith led a two-on-two break and decided to chip the goalkeeper from 35 yards, with Button just about getting back and clawing the ball behind for a corner.

With three added minutes about to be played, there was still time for late drama, with Sam Tickle parrying Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan's fierce drive, and then regaining his feet quickly to push the ball away from the danger zone.