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Wigan Athletic continued their remarkable run of form by snatching a 1-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur at the JJB Stadium.

Maynor Figueroa scored in the 90th minute to register his first goal for the club and extend Wigan's run to six wins from their last seven league matches and see them close the gap in sixth-placed Everton to four points, with their game in hand against Manchester United to come on Wednesday.

Tottenham remain in the relegation zone with 20 points - two points above West Brom and Blackburn, who have a game in hand - and the Londoners have now failed to score in five of their last seven games in the league.

Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes had pulled a groin muscle midway through the second half but, despite him visibly struggling, Spurs manager Harry Redknapp could not bring him off as he had already used all three of his substitutes.

When Ryan Taylor's corner came in just as four minutes of injury time were signalled, Honduras full-back Figueroa lost his marker to head past the immobile Gomes.

The late winner was not the dream return to Spurs that Jermain Defoe had been hoping for. The striker made his first appearance since rejoining the club from Portsmouth a year after leaving, but was unable to continue his impressive record of debut goals.

Defoe partnered Roman Pavlyuchenko up front as Redknapp fielded his side in a 3-5-2, with Jonathan Woodgate, Michael Dawson and captain Ledley King as the three central defenders.

Wigan boss Steve Bruce was able to pick from an entirely fit first-team squad as he aimed to extend his side's run of one defeat in nine league games.

Spurs, who found themselves back in the bottom three at the start of the day following Saturday's results, began the stronger of the two sides, and could have been ahead within 60 seconds when goalkeeper Chris Kirkland dropped King's header and scrambled to block Dawson's follow-up effort for a corner.

Jamie O'Hara came off the bench to orchestrate the 4-1 comeback win over Burnley in the Carling Cup in midweek, and was rewarded with a place in the starting line-up at the JJB, and should have scored when he sidefooted a shot wide from a well-rehearsed free-kick routine with Luka Modric.

As the half wore on, however, Wigan's front pairing of Amr Zaki and Emile Heskey began to threaten more and more.

Both men were thwarted by last-ditch blocks from Dawson, and Zaki saw his glancing header from Ryan Taylor's corner bounce the wrong side of the far post with Gomes beaten.

The Egyptian striker then turned Dawson on the halfway line and left him behind before bending a cross in for Heskey at the far post, but the England striker was too close to the goal and at too acute an angle and Gomes was on hand to smother the shot.

Redknapp introduced Darren Bent five minutes into the second half, but Defoe struggled to get anymore involved in the match than he had in the first-half, and remained something of a peripheral figure. The one time the striker got to run goalwards with the ball at his feet he was pulled back by Wilson Palacios, but somehow referee Andre Marriner failed the spot the infringement.

After Dawson was replaced by Jermaine Jenas after clashing heads with Heskey, Tottenham reverted to a 4-4-2 that seemed to play right into Wigan's hands, and the final stages were dominated by the home side, with Zaki heading wide and Taylor firing a free-kick over the bar before Figueroa became the most unlikely of heroes for the Latics.

Tony Mabert / Eurosport