Rangers loanee Jordan Jones was hooked just past the hour mark as adopted club Sunderland suffered a major blow to their automatic promotion hopes.
The Stadium of Light club are battling it out with Hull City and Peterborough United as the frontrunners for promotion from EFL League One to the Championship.
But the Black Cats are now without a win in three games after falling to a 2-1 defeat to relegation battling Wigan Athletic in the English third tier, with the result lifting Wigan out of the relegation zone.
The defeat to the Latics is also Sunderland’s second on the trot following a 2-1 home defeat to Charlton at the weekend.
The result leaves Sunderland 3rd in League One, five points off the Posh in 2nd, and eight off Hull City in 1st.
Jones, 26, has been with Sunderland since January and has impressed in Lee Johnson’s side who are still well in contention for a place in the division’s playoffs.
Northern Irish international Jones started the game which saw prolific striker Charlie Wyke open the scoring around the half-hour mark.
However, ex-Man Utd youth Will Keane found an equaliser for Wigan three minutes before halftime and Callum Lang would fire the DW Stadium side ahead on 58 minutes.
A little over five minutes later Rangers loanee Jones was hooked for Lynden Gooch but this did little to stop the result as Wigan ran out 2-1 winners.
Sunderland now have five games to rescue an automatic promotion slot with the curtain coming down on a long old slog of a season.
Sunderland fans have previously raved about the Ibrox loanee who has made 14 appearances for the club since January.
