Fulham left Wigan deep in the doldrums at the foot of the Premier League on Saturday with a 2-0 win that propelled the Londoners out of the bottom five.
Fulham leapfrogged Everton and Wolves as goals in either half from Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele handed Wigan their eighth consecutive defeat in a keenly fought affair at the DW Stadium.
The Latics had their chances but missed them as Gary Caldwell headed over before the break and then Victor Moses and Maynor Figueroa both struck the woodwork afterwards.
Dempsey made them pay as he scored on a 41st-minute breakaway and then Dembele bagged the second on 86 minutes to earn the visitors their first away victory of the season and only their second win of the campaign to date.
Mark Schwarzer performed heroics in the Fulham goal on the half-hour mark, keeping the score goalless when it seemed Wigan would go in front.
Figueroa went on a mazy run and set up Albert Crusat for a cross that was cleared as far as Ben Watson, whose volley Schwarzer tipped over.
The unmarked Caldwell then headed the resulting corner just over from close range.
Schwarzer almost embarrassed himself when he fumbled Moses' low cross-shot but the ball bounced beyond the lurking Rodallega and then Fulham began to make their hosts pay for not turning their early dominance into goals -- as had been the case in their narrow loss at Newcastle last weekend.
Danny Murphy was instrumental in the opening Fulham goal, finding Bobby Zamora on the left flank.
His cross was meat and drink for Dempsey, who fired past Ali Al Habsi in the Wigan goal.
Moses almost equalised just prior to the break but his effort slipped just wide of the post with Schwarzer in no man's land.
Ten minutes after the restart, Moses was out of luck again as his fine volley crashed back off the angle of post and bar.
Zamora hit the bar at the other end before Figueroa struck the post for Wigan.
That miss cost the hosts as the Wigan defence allowed Dembele to run through unchallenged and place a shot wide of Al Habsi for the clincher.
Source: AFP
