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Reading made one change coming into the game, with Hope Akpan replacing Wayne Bridge, leaving Jordan Obita to slot in at left-back.
It was Obita who had the game's first attempt on goal in the opening two minutes but that was about as good as it got for Nigel Adkins' team who were under constant pressure from a rampant Wigan side, who deservedly took the lead on the half-hour through Jordi Gomez, his fourth in two home games against us.
Three minutes before the break it was 2-0 through Martyn Waghorn, as Reading's hopes resembled Anton Zingarevich's wallet... empty.
Despair turned to... well, greater despair three minutes after half-time when an unchanged Reading team saw Callum McManaman capitalise on an error from Sean Morrison to make it 3-0 and leave those brave 500 or so Royals fans wondering just why they'd bothered to make the trip.
Adkins threw on Nick Blackman and Hal Robson-Kanu for Danny Williams and Jobi McAnuff but they made no real impact as the game played itself out much like a pre-season friendly, with Wigan fans hastily booking off play-off dates and Reading fans left to wonder how they'd spend the May Bank Holiday without a trip to Wembley to worry about.
If you're an optimist, well at least other results went Reading's way to the point where we only dropped out of the top six by a single point but given how badly we're playing it's hard to see how we make the play-offs from this stage.
The passion seems to have been ripped out of Reading's squad right now and whether that's the ownership problems, dejection with injuries, issues with the manager, bad luck or none of the above, it's been a very disappointing season compared to our lofty pre-season hopes.
Still, stranger things have happened and maybe, just maybe there's a final twist to come.
Stay tuned for the full report and player ratings later this weekend.