Leeds were booed off the pitch at half and full time and deservedly so, a rare Boxing Day fixture at Elland Road turned into anything but festive cheer as Wigan recorded their first win under Malky MacKay. It's now four without a win for Leeds and just two wins in 15 matches and loss against the side second from bottom will do little to ease the nerves that Leeds are facing a relegation campaign in 2015.
I thought for 10 minutes at least we started brightly enough and looked determined to end the year at Elland Road on a high. Really our home-form has kept us away from the relegation trapdoor but now that has started to fade with consecutive home defeats, these are worrying times at Elland Road. Michael Tonge also made a rare start, a sign that Neil Redfearn who has bemoaned the lack of Championship experience is willing to turn to another of the forgotten old guard of one of his predecessors.
However with their first attack, Wigan scored and like the snow that blighted my journey home it was a case of a late Christmas gift from Liam Cooper to put the Latics in front. Okay James McClean beat Bellusci for pace with ease and he sent over a cross without any yellow shirted Wigan colleague in any dangerous position but Liam Cooper stooped to chest the ball back past a displaced Marco Silvestre. It was a howler from Cooper but why Silvestre didn't shout and tell his team-mate there was no danger is beyond me, lack of communication and the keeper commanding his area cost Leeds dear.
Our heads visibly dropped and other than Sharp having a header tipped onto the bar by our former young keeper Scott Carson there was very little cheer and the whites' trooped off with boos ringing in their ears.
Neil Redfearn at least tried to change things around. Another first-half failing was our regular punting of high balls into the area with the diminutive Sharp and Antenucci rarely troubling the Wigan back line. Redfearn sacrificed the ineffectual Mowatt and Bianchi, who has had too many off-days in recent weeks for Rudy Austin and Steve Morison. Austin at least provided some exciting surges forward, even of his shooting was wayward. Lewis Cook, who like Byram was one of the few players who could emerge with any credit provided some good runs at the Wugan defence, however most chances were snuffed out as Wigan showed us how to defend in numbers. When Morison finally got a header in, Carson did well to tip it over the bar.
You could sense desperation from the bench when Redfearn threw on Doukara for Sharp, the latter clearly incensed at being subbed by refusing to shake his coach's hand and booting a water bottle in disgust before sulking off down the tunnel.
However our bleak afternoon got worse and in the icy rain Wigan wrapped up the points with 10 minutes to go when they caught the whites on the counter. Just minutes after cannoning a shot into the legs of Silvestre, McClean made no mistake finishing off a delightful passing move by hammering a shot into the Italians' net and gleefully celebrating in front of the small band of travelling Wigan fans many of whom had been subsidised by their heroes to make the trip across the Pennines.
It simply was not good enough by Leeds, okay individual errors cost us today but again the frailties of Redfearn's squad and his inherited hangovers of four changes in management prove to be so costly. With a trip to Derby beckoning on Tuesday, who today crushed Birmingham City 4-0 at St Andrews with apparent ease Leeds could well start 2015 in the bottom three.