Reading 1 Wigan Athletic 0 Hughes 69Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 13,819. Neil Roberts slipped a short pass to Gary Teale who hit a three-yard shot into the sturdy body of Marcus Hahnemann.Ironically, a game which had greatly lacked interest ended somewhat absurdly when in injury time Filan ran out to intercept a high ball from Kevin Watson well outside the penalty area, handled and was sent off on the decision of the referee's assistant. John Salako swung a long free-kick across the goalmouth and Andy Hughes stooped to plant an excellent header past John Filan, who must have been as surprised as everyone else since Hughes had been even more anonymous than most of the home team.By a slight margin in half chances created Reading merited their lead but were fortunate to retain it when, with five minutes remaining, two of Wigan's substitutes combined inside the penalty area. The level of passing skills on both sides was sad to desperate, and the shooting when it happened, which was not often, ranged from wide to wider - even by Ellington.Finally, after 69 ponderous minutes, Reading managed to snap the clutches of boredom. As a result, confidence in that area seemed threatened, yet Reading contained the Wigan attack with unchanged stability.As for the more positive aspects of the game, they were largely obscured in a mist of indifference.

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Indeed, he conjured only a couple of peripheral chances while Reading looked controlled in midfield and offered Nicky Forster two more serious opportunities.When Reading's captain and central defender Adie Williams succumbed to an ankle injury, he had to be replaced by Ricky Newman after only 27 minutes. New manager Steve Coppell has predictably settled on 4-4-2 with a priority being to draw the sort of away games the side had been losing.

At home, though, the pursuit of victory yesterday was a matter of maintaining promotion credibility.Reading's first priority was to keep the lid on Wigan's precocious goal scorer, Nathan Ellington, who has a sleek turn of speed but was smoothly controlled by Reading's injury-reduced but efficient defence. With each succeeding match, the question becomes more poignant. How seriously do we take Wigan as a potential Premiership club? The evidence at the Madejski Stadium yesterday suggested that the answer is - not very. Being deprived of the managerial skills of Alan Pardew was like severing a natural sinew of continuity.A nine-point gap between themselves and Wigan at the commencement yesterday was a daunting preamble. The Brazilian delayed, bent the ball with the outside of his right foot and then somehow put it over. "We put Mario into the hero's position but unfortunately he did not make himself one," was Bolton manager Sam Allardyce's comment.Strachan was another to find little heroism in the striker. "A big Jessie," was his description.Bolton Wanderers 0 Southampton 0Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 25,619.

Bolton, meanwhile, finally got the ball in the net after 57 minutes when Nolan's clever cut back came to nothing thanks to Per Frandsen's mis-kick and Stelios Giannakopoulos drifting offside.That action apart, the one occasion a team looked likely to score was when Okocha beat two players and served Jardel with the expertise of a first class waiter. Niemi defied gravity to deny Okocha after 54 minutes and the hitherto anonymous Kevin Phillips had a shot blocked by Jaaskelainen a minute later after Telfer's quick free-kick had earned him space in the right of the area.Phillips should have scored after 56 minutes when Rory Delap's header looped over the Bolton goalkeeper and the former Sunderland striker needed merely a touch to force the ball over the line. Twice the Finn denied Okocha with brilliant dives to flick the ball from the top corner but for the other Bolton efforts they might as well have saved their energy.The excitement, such as it was, was confined to a four-minute spell in the second half. Southampton had only two chances all game.For most of the afternoon Bolton were shooting from hit-and-hope range, an exercise in over-optimism if ever there was one against Antti Niemi, one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership. Bolton came with rave notices from their performance against Tottenham but their failing is a familiar one: an inability to score. Strachan described it as "bleak, dour, boring and scrappy" which over-rated it.