Wigan 1-1 Fulham: Visitors have to settle for a play-off spot to earn Premier League promotion

The appeal is going in and the Championship table is accompanied by a huge asterisk. Wigan Athletic are down, yet they are not. Not yet, anyway.

And they do not deserve to be, presumably the only team in history to suffer relegation with a positive goal difference if the 12-point deduction for going into administration is upheld when heard on July 31.

Fulham, who head into the play-offs, ended their resistance to relegation but defiance remained at the DW Stadium. Wigan were fantastic on Wednesday night and have been fantastic since January, when they were bottom – seemingly down and out – before a flurry of results that shocked this division. 

They produced an exceptionally emotive video earlier in the week, a journey through their 88-year history, the narrator summing them up as ‘unique, different… special’.

They are not special but that’s exactly the point, is it not? There are 70 other clubs in the EFL – all unique, all special to their own – to whom this abhorrence could befall. It already has to more than a few, that social and economic devastation in communities whose heartbeat depends on football. Clubs are more than just sport in towns like Wigan.

Supporters of other clubs, including a sizeable number from Fulham, have donated season ticket reimbursements to a crowdfunding effort that is ticking beyond £177,000, primarily to help those staff who have not been looked after during the process.

Meanwhile, club directors – still in tears 24 hours after administration was confirmed – have continued unpaid, defiant in the face of oblivion. A new owner, whose identity joint-administrator Gerald Krasner refused to disclose on Wednesday, is waiting in the wings. The incidentals must be agreed by noon on Thursday, the contracts exchanged by July 31.

Krasner also warned of a ‘definite’ two-year transfer embargo and a further 15-point deduction next season, although EFL sources say that punishments will only apply if new club owners are in default of any agreement in relation to secured creditor claims. Wigan fans really do not need any more scaremongering at this juncture; they have heard enough.

Regardless, there was a job to do and Paul Cook’s side, who have lost just twice since January, performed it admirably. ‘Higher, higher, higher,’ Cook demanded in hoarse scouse, and Fulham were unsettled in their own half. Wigan had a spring and deserved their lead.

In what should be his last game for the club, Kieffer Moore earlier saw one chalked off for offside but went again just after the half-hour, heading home the industrious Nathan Byrne’s cross. Both sides wanted penalties, Scott Parker more incensed than Cook when the decision went against him.

Fulham equalised four minutes after the break, a breathtaking free-kick by Neeskens Kebano – easily their most progressive player all night – arching away from David Marshall.

Chances came and went for Wigan, Leon Balogun forcing Marek Rodak into a stunning save, Kal Naismith flashing wide.

‘I don’t know what it is, but it is something,’ that video’s narrator ended by describing his town. Wigan’s story certainly is something – and still has extra time in court to go.