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The goalkeeper’s angry reaction brought him a booking as well as the Gillingham striker.Wigan failed to exploit their clear superiority, and even allowed Gillingham to bring them down to something akin to their own standards. Sunderland powered into the Coca-Cola Championship’s automatic promotion places on goal difference after a rare Gary Breen strike and Marcus Stewart’s 13th goal of the season earned a 2-1 win over Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light. The excellent, elusive Gary Teale weaved in and out and struck a shot on to the bar. Then, amazingly, Roberts hit the post from an unopposed position two yards out, and Lee McCulloch did the same with a header.Had the urgency and purpose Wigan put into the last quarter of an hour been seen after they had first allowed Gillingham to have a voice, they would surely have won by a substantial margin.Although the result did not deprive Wigan of their leading position on goal difference it may well have put some doubts in their minds, though they would have, of course, not called it pressure..

Sure enough, when, in the 65th minute, Sidibe pushed the ball wide across the penalty area, Filan chased out, but Henderson beat him to it and lifted the ball over him and into goal.Wigan reacted strongly. The ball ended at Ellington’s feet and he drove in his 21st goal of the season from some 25 yards.If any Gillingham player was going to haul them back again, it had to be the abrasive Henderson. Gillingham had failed to mop up an attack that was none too threatening. Indeed, after 52 minutes, their defence was static when the Gillingham substitute Mamady Sidibe slid the ball low across their penalty area and Henderson diverted it past Filan.Three minutes later Ellington reacted in typically exciting style. Ellington’s strength on the ground and his power in the air became a constant problem and the two players had an understanding that was a well-developed link.It took Gillingham half an hour to raise more than the odd long ball in the vague direction of Darius Henderson, and when they did break away they were easily contained.

Here they imposed themselves on the Gillingham defence early enough to give the impression that it was only a matter of time before they broke through.Six minutes in and Roberts was sending in a searing shot that brushed the crossbar. Real pressure is being near the bottom, like Gillingham, where the fight against relegation can seriously damage your health. Stan Ternent, their manager, did not need to be reminded of that yesterday.Just as he thought his troubled team were looking upwards, West Ham’s fortunate 1-0 win had sent them back and made the visit of top-of-the-table Wigan all the more threatening.The most significant threat that Wigan pose to any team is the striking combination of Nathan Ellington and Jason Roberts who began the match with a combined total of 36 goals. With Gillingham’s forward Iwan Roberts in talks over a player-coach role, that now seems a possibility. Third from bottom, six points adrift of Rushden & Diamonds and in dire financial straits, this is not the best of times for Cambridge.

But, astonishingly – given how things looked a week ago – nor is it the worst.. Quite against all the indications of their respective League positions and the first half at Priestfield Stadium yesterday, Gillingham persecuted Wigan for failing to secure a match they had in their grasp. That projection, predicated on crowds of 4,000, was hopelessly optimistic – 3,765 turned out yesterday, and more than 800 were from Oxford – and within two months the fund had gone. When Roger Hunt (not the England World Cup-winner) replaced Gary Harwood as chairman three weeks ago, he said the club had to raise £300,000 by the end of the month to survive.It seemed initially that the money would come from a consortium led by Johnny Hon, a board member and businessman who divides his time between London and Hong Kong and has a PhD in psychiatry from Cambridge University. All has gone quiet on that front, but with Cambridge Fans United, a supporters’ organisation, raising just under £100,000, the club’s vice-chairman, John Howard, indicated last week that they should be able to muddle through until season’s end.With estimates suggesting a drop to the Conference would cost the club £500,000 a year, the next task is to avoid relegation. The sale of their ground for £1.9 million in November paid off immediate debts of £1.5m, and the rest was supposed to tide them over until the end of the season. Juan-Pablo Raponi then hit the bar, but it was Cambridge who got the late winner, Shane Tudor driving into the bottom corner as a Warren Goodhind free-kick squirted across the box.Cambridge, though, continue to fret in misty uncertainty.

But with their first attack of the half they equalised, John Turner stabbing home Lee Bradbury’s cross from close range.Dave Woozley should have restored Oxford’s lead just moments later but he headed tamely at Ruddy from six yards out. He cut infield and, with exquisite and unexpected quality, curled the ball into the net off the post from 25 yards. Ruddy, despite what Thompson referred to as “a bit of a wobble” yesterday, is in talks with Everton, and could sign a pre-contract agreement tomorrow.He almost gifted Oxford a second with another weak clearance early in the second half, and as Craig Davies also went close, defeat and further gloom seemed almost inevitable for Cambridge. Certainly Cambridge were fortunate in the second half, scoring twice in the final 21 minutes despite Oxford having virtually all of the ball, yet they had been the victims of a similar mugging themselves in the first half.The home side forced corner after corner but fell behind in first-half injury time as John Ruddy’s weak clearance was gathered on the right touchline by Steve Basham. After an extraordinary finish to this tale of two Varsities, they are off the bottom of League Two, and suddenly relegation and possible extinction no longer seem a foregone conclusion.
Last week, the Cambridge manager, Steve Thompson, was complaining that he could not win a one-ticket raffle; yesterday, he was talking about the corner having been turned. On the back of a victory, Forest might have felt able to set their worries to one side. Instead, one suspects their focus will be on Championship business at Leicester next Saturday..