Wigan Athletic substitute Nick Powell netted a ten-minute hat-trick as they came from 2-0 down to beat Barnsley 3-2 in a remarkable match.
Adam Armstrong put the visitors ahead in the 42nd minute then Ryan Kent doubled the lead before the hour but home Powell netted twice within a minute to level the scores then fired in a penalty after a foul by Angus MacDonald.
The win kept second-bottom Wigan's slim chance of staying up alive while Barnsley now won just two of their last 14 matches.
Paul Heckingbottom made two changes from the side that won 2-0 at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday with strikers Tom Bradshaw and Armstrong returning to the starting-line-up in place of Josh Scowen and Ryan Hedghes who both dropped to the bench. Marley Watkins moved out to the right wing in a 4-4-2 with George Moncur partnering Matty James in central midfielder.
After a very quiet opening quarter of the match, MacDonald dwelled too long on the ball in his box and was robbed by Michael Jacobs who passed to Gabriel Obertan but Wigan's lone striker stabbed wide from six yards out under pressure from Marc Roberts.Ten minutes later, Barnsley goalkeeper Adam Davies was forced into the first save of the match and it was a very good one as he got down well to his left to push wide a 15-yard shot from his former team-mate Sam Morsy who spent the first half of the season on loan to the Reds from Wigan.
The Latics had several other long-range shots but most were off target and Davies saved with ease from another Obertan effort. It was the Reds who took the lead against the run of play three minutes before the break when Armstrong ended a nine-match scoreless streak. Watkins brilliantly skipped away from three home players near halfway and played Ryan Kent through one-on-one. The winger's shot hit the left post but Armstrong tapped the rebound into the empty net.
Wigan were marginally on top in the first 15 minutes of the second half but were again hit on the counter-attack as Kent cut in from the right wing and fired a superb low shot into the bottom left corner. Davies made another good save to keep the score at 2-0 midway through the second half, pushing the ball wide after initially being wrong-footed by a 30-yard yard deflected effort from Max Power.
But the Reds goalkeeper was beaten by a 71st-minute Powell free-kick from the right side which seemed to swerve in the air and fool Davies before sneaking in. The same player levelled seconds later with a simple tap-in after Davies spilled a shot from another substitute Ryan Colclough.
The hosts almost took the lead with ten minutes to play when a sliding Power hit the bar after meeting a left wing cross just inside the Barnsley box. The third goal eventually came when MacDonald was controversially ruled to have pushed over a Wigan player in the box and Powell scored the penalty.
Barnsley thought they had levelled in the 89th minute when Matty James volleyed in a Roberts long throw but the referee ruled it out for a foul on the home goalkeeper.
