ZIMBABWE international Tendayi Darikwa finally tasted competitive league football for the first time in 18 months with a man-of-the-match shift as his new club Wigan Athletic settled for the share of spoils in a six-goal thriller against Rochdale in the English League One on Saturday.

The 29-year-old completed his move from Championship Nottingham Forest last week. However, the Zimbabwean defender was unlucky not to bag maximum points on debut after Wigan Athletic allowed 10-man Rochdale to come back from the dead by conceding a 96th-minute equaliser as the match ended in a 3-3 draw.

Darikwa, who is a key member of the Zimbabwe national team in the current Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, was naturally relieved with his first outing for Wigan.

According to a report from the Nottingham Post, the industrious fullback showed no signs of rustiness on his return to league football despite spending a year-and-a-half on the sidelines due to injury.

UK publication, Wigan Today, gave him a rating of 8/10 and named him as their man-of-the-match.-The Herald