Wigan 3 Oldham 1

Last updated : 21 April 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Wigan boss Paul Jewell hailed his sides ' best performance of the season' as they celebrated the Second Division championship in style with a comprehensive 3-1 victory over Oldham at the JJB Stadium.

A crowd of almost 13,000, boosted by a large Oldham following, saw the home side fall behind to a goal within 20 seconds from Oldham striker Wayne Andrews, but after that Wigan showed why they are worthy champions with a superb display.

Striker Neil Roberts headed the equaliser midway through the first half and then midfielder Jimmy Bullard cracked home a superb free-kick for his first goal for the club with 20 minutes remaining.

Robert's added a third eight minutes from time to put the icing on the cake and manager Jewell said: "We showed today just why we are the champions. This was a great advert for the Second Division, in fact I almost enjoyed the game!" "Anyone who expected us to take things easy was proved wrong and we played some tremendous football and scored some cracking goals." His Oldham counterpart Iain Dowie admitted that his side were well beaten.

He said: "We were very poor today and too many of my players were well below par. Our passing was not good enough but I think that Wigan showed today just what a good side they are.

"We got off to the best possible start but then we never got up a head of steam and allowed Wigan to dominate."