First Leg Stalemate

Wigan and Queens Park Rangers played out a tense 0-0 draw in their opening play-off semi-final at the DW stadium. Both sides travel to Loftus Road on Monday knowing there is everything to play for following the stalemate on Friday night.

The 90 minutes cut a cagey affair with both teams, relegated from the Premier League together last season, unwilling to allow the opposition any sort of advantage going into the repeat fixture on Monday night. Yellow cards, scrappy midfield battles and rare chances were an all too familiar theme throughout the first leg.

Harry Redknapp opted to restore Richard Dunne, Joey Barton and Ravel Morrison to the starting line-up, while Danny Simpson and Clint Hill returned from injury. It was in fact the Rs skipper who was involved in the first talking point of the game as a sly elbow smash to the back of defender Rob Kiernan`s head in the penalty area went unnoticed by referee Mike Jones. The Premier League referee soon had to get his cards out though as he brandished yellow cards to Richard Dunne, Callum McManaman and James McArthur in quick succession following poor challenges.

Despite Wigan dominating possession for long spells of the game it was the visitors that created a couple of close chances with Gary O`Neil seeing a powerful effort blocked before Armand Traore could only blaze a leaping heading over the bar from a cute Junior Hoilett cross on 37 minutes. Wigan, playing their 61st game of an arduous season, saw their best chance fall to Player of the Year Jordi Gomez, but the Spaniard`s volley was saved smartly by Rs goalkeeper Rob Green.

QPR started the second-half the better of the two sides and Scott Carson was called into action early on following Armand Traore`s low shot from the edge of the area. Charlie Austin could only muster a tame header on goal moments later. Chances were scarce for much of the second period but Wigan missed a golden opportunity to take the lead when Rob Kiernan`s miscued effort from a corner found its way to the feet of Marc-Antoine Fortune, who wildly shot over from just 10 yards.

Both sides made changes, with Kevin Doyle and Niko Kranjcar coming on for QPR and Nicky Maynard and Martyn Waghorn for Wigan, but neither team could make the breakthrough as the game petered out into an inevitable draw.