Sunderland secured three precious points in their fight against relegation, after a dogged performance highlighed by a fantastic goal set up by Andy Reid, within seconds of his debut.

Roy Keane made two changes, both forced by injury, as Kieran Richardson was replaced on the wing by Roy O'Donovan, with Daryl Murphy dropping onto the left wing as Michael Chopra moved up front. Elsewhere in midfield, Dickson Etuhu replaced the injured Liam Miller, as our subs bench featured January signings Rade Prica and - for the first time - Andy Reid.

Sunderland steamed out of the blocks as we pushed Wigan in a bid to get our first win over the Latics in five games against them (our last win came in April 2005), as O'Donovan headed a Daryl Murphy cross just wide in the third minute, following some good work from the returning Etuhu. Emile Heskey got the first of 21 Wigan shots on goal, but his effort went well off target, shortly before Paul Scharner saw his 35 yarder whistle just wide of Craig Gordon's goal.

Ryan Taylor wasted a free kick for the visitors after an Etuhu foul on Palacios, as Sunderland upped the ante a little bit, but we failed to create anything of note, thanks to a combination of decent defending, and poor forward play - a combination that seemed to frustrate Roy Keane during what became a very scrappy match.

O'Donovan had to come off on 26 minutes through injury, as Rade Prica came on for his third injury-forced substitute appearance in as many games, with Michael Chopra once again dropping onto the right wing. Prica came close to meeting Kenwyne Jones' flick on within seconds of his arrival, before Jonny Evans had to get back to clear the ball from Marlon King after his mistake had let the ex-Watford man through on goal.

Following a brief spell when Wigan were on top, Sunderland ended the first half on a high, when Phil Bardsley won a free kick on the right wing. Dean Whitehead took the set piece, and promptly found the head of Dickson Etuhu, who nodded past Chris Kirkland for his first goal in a Sunderland shirt.

Wigan pushed again after the restart, as Marlon King saw his short parried by Gordon, with Michael Brown's effort on the rebound hacked off the line by Dean Whitehead, as Kevin Kilbane hit a left footed shot off the post moments later. Sunderland did get back into things, but Daryl Murphy wasted a glorious chance to make it 2-0 on 51 minutes, when Whitehead's cross fell to him just inside the area, only for Murphy to panic and blaze his effort well wide of goal.

Luis Valencia saw his 20 yard shot deflect off of Nyron Nosworthy for a corner as Wigan applied more pressure, but Sunderland went back at them, as Palacios needed to stop Rade Prica from bearing down on Kirkland. Andy Reid came on for his debut with a little over a quarter of an hour left, and just like our last debutant - Rade Prica - he made an instant impact.

With his first touches of the ball, Reid sent a cross-field pass from the halfway line to Daryl Murphy, who smashed home the ball past Kirkland from 20 yards out to effectively kill the game off.

Wigan did try to pressure us again to close out the game, but Kilbane, substitute Marcus Bent and Marlon King's effort didn't cause us too many problems, as Sunderland retained their 100% league record at home in 2008, sending us up to 14th spot in the Premier League, just two points behind a Newcastle side that is getting increasingly worse!

Sunderland: Gordon, Bardsley, Collins, Evans, Nosworthy, O'Donovan (sub 26, Prica), Etuhu (sub 84, Leadbitter), Whitehead, Murphy, Jones, Chopra (sub 74, Reid). Subs: Fulop, McShane.

Wigan: Kirkland, Melchiot (sub 46, Koumas), Boyce, Scharner, Taylor (sub 56, Olembe), Kilbane, Valencia, Palacios, Brown, Heskey (sub 68, Bent), King. Subs: Pollitt, Granqvist.