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Manchester United’s Joe Hugill made a disappointing return to action for Wigan Athletic against Mansfield Town last night.
A 1-2 loss at home will be incredibly hard to take considering the Lactics had 22 shots to the away side’s four and 66% of the ball.
The United academy product made a fine start to life at the DW Stadium, scoring three goals in his first couple of months at the club but he picked up an injury at the end of September that has kept him out of action for the previous three games.
Last night’s loss to Mansfield was his first return to action in around a month but it hardly went to plan as he was hauled off after the first 45 minutes.
He was given a score of 6.4 on Sofascore as he struggled to get involved.
Hugill had two unlucky moments in the first half, the first one coming when he was free in the penalty area to fire in a close range effort but his teammate Dion Rankine selfishly failed to square the ball and shot right at the Mansfield keeper.
The United striker was also left incensed when he was not awarded a penalty after an apparent shirt pull.
A long-range free kick from Thelo Aasgaard was parried right into the path of the waiting Hugill and he was clearly pulled back by the away side’s defender but, inexplicably, no penalty was given.
Aside from bad luck and some questionable refereeing, Hugill failed to make much of any more opportunities he was given as he only had one shot blocked during the half.
He had only nine touches and completed a paltry two out of three passes to exemplify how little he was involved in the build up play.
Hugill was also ineffective in duels winning 33% of his ground duels and a weak 20% of his aerial battles.
To be fair to the 21 year old, he will need time to get back into the swing of things after his injury layoff and he will hope he can make another start when Wigan travel to Blackpool next Monday.
