O'Neil thwarts weary Wigan

Preston North End 1 - Wigan Athletic 1

For Wigan, the wait goes on. Having missed out on the play-offs in the last minute of last season, they are left fearing another sting in the tail that would deny them automatic promotion. Their goal difference is such, though, that their destiny remains in their own hands, and a victory over Reading next week would see them promoted whatever Ipswich do at Brighton.

For Wigan, the wait goes on. Having missed out on the play-offs in the last minute of last season, they are left fearing another sting in the tail that would deny them automatic promotion. Their goal difference is such, though, that their destiny remains in their own hands, and a victory over Reading next week would see them promoted whatever Ipswich do at Brighton.

"We've got to be careful we don't go away from here thinking this was a bad result," the Wigan manager, Paul Jewell, said. "In the cold light of day it's a point at Preston, and there's not many sides have got that."

He was honest enough, though, to admit that this was a bad performance. "We never hit our rhythm," he said. "We didn't do the simple things. We didn't pass it well and we weren't crisp in our tackling."

The concern must be that, having led the table for so long, the momentum has left Wigan. With successive draws they have surrendered the Championship title to Sunderland, and, should they slip up next week, the worry must be that a sense of anti-climax has proved fatal to so many teams in the play-offs. Whether it is the size of their squad or the mental pressure of being in the highest position in the club's history, Wigan, as they did last year, approach the end of the season with the look of a side running out of steam.

Nathan Ellington, in particular, is far diminished from the forward who terrorised defenders in the early part of the season, and although he was customarily awkward to deal with, he cut a dejected, frustrated figure yesterday. "All players suffer dips in form, especially strikers," said Jewell. "He's lacking a bit of confidence, but we've a week to put him right."

With Ellington blunted, Wigan rarely threatened yesterday, and it was something of a surprise when they took the lead after 24 minutes. Graham Kavanagh bent in a free-kick from the left, and Lee McCulloch, who played under the Preston manager, Billy Davies, at Motherwell, headed powerfully past Carlo Nash. "I've a soft spot for Wigan because of him," Davies said, "but the big basket always scores against us."

West Ham's defeat by Sunderland on Friday had already guaranteed Preston their place in the play-offs, but it was Davies's side who remained the more assertive, and they equalised four minutes before half-time. It came from an almost identical position to Wigan's opener, Brian O'Neil arriving unmarked at the back post to head in Paul McKenna's delivery.

Both managers blamed poor marking for the goals they conceded, but despite "some words at half-time" from Jewell, Chris Lucketti was granted a free header from another McKenna free-kick with 10 minutes remaining. His effort was straight at John Filan, but it was as close as either side came in a disappointing second half.

Davies insists finishing fourth is "very important", because of the advantage of playing the second leg of the play-off semi-final at home. He may genuinely believe that, but it was out of step with the generally congratulatory air at Deepdale yesterday, and the suspicion must be that he was just trying to maintain the momentum through to the very end. Jewell's fear must be that he has already lost it.