Middlesbrough beat Wigan 1-0 at the JJB Stadium thanks to a goal from Jeremie Aliadiere two minutes before full-time.

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The Frenchman slid the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of Chris Kirkland's net to steal all three points for the Teessiders, who had survived heavy Wigan pressure for much of the previous 88 minutes.

The result ends two unwanted statistics for Gareth Southgate's side who had failed to win on the road in the whole of 2008 before this result and had also lost their last four matches.

The result was hard on Wigan, who dominated possession throughout but failed to open up a resolute Middlesbrough side who were epitomised by the committed performance of their young centre-half David Wheater.

Wheater lined up in a Boro side that was forced to make two changes from that which lost to West Brom last week, with defenders Andrew Taylor and Robert Huth ruled out through injury. Chris Riggott and Jon Grounds - who was this week recalled from a loan spell at Norwich because of Boro's injury problems - were drafted into Southgate's backline.

Wigan, meanwhile, had no new injury worries and made just one change from the side which had dispatched mega-rich Man City last time out with Paul Scharner preferred to Emmerson Boyce in central defence.

The home side made a lively start and twice came close to scoring in the opening 11 minutes. First Wilson Palacios flashed a shot inches wide of Boro keeper Ross Turnbull's right-hand post after latching on to an Emile Heskey flick-on into the area. Then Egyptian striker Amr Zaki poked the ball wide from a yard out after an Antonio Valencia free-kick had found him at the far post.

Wheater almost gave Boro the lead against the run of play with a looping header which dropped just wide of the top left-hand corner of Chris Kirkland's goal after half an hour.

A minute before Wheater's chance, Boro had a decent shout for a penalty when Scharner pushed Riggott to the ground in the box but referee Martin Atkinson turned down the appeals.

Palacios missed a golden opportunity to break the deadlock just two minutes into the second half when a Valencia shot was deflected perfectly into his path inside the penalty area but with the whole goal to aim for, the midfielder miscued a side-footed shot horribly high over the bar.

Wigan boss Steve Bruce threw on Jason Koumas for the ineffective Olivier Kapo with an hour gone to offer a different dimension to the Latics attack. And the Welshman came desperately close to repaying his manager's decision with ten minutes left when he danced around four defenders to create a shooting opportunity for himself inside the area but Turnbull dived low to his right to deny him.

Two minutes later Turnbull was called into action again, this time to bravely block a Heskey shot from point-blank range inside the six-yard box.

That was as clear a chance as Wigan had all afternoon and their failure to take advantage was punished by Aliadiere's late strike.