Wigan Athletic star had to 'drag team up' after 'annoying' display

The 26-year-old was instrumental in Latics coming back from two goals down at half-time to beat the Cod Army on penalties after a 3-3 draw.

Humphrys reduced the arrears shortly after half-time after cutting in off the left and driving his shot beyond the goalkeeper.

He then threaded a lovely ball through for substitute Josh Stones to equalise – which wasn’t even close to being the end of the drama.

Manager Shaun Maloney singled out Humphrys afterwards for praise, calling his performance "outstanding, brilliant...the best player on the pitch."

All of which was music to the ears of the player who is back in the fold after spending the whole of last term on loan with Hearts.

"I'm obviously happy the manager thought I did well.

"I just wanted to try to drag the team up, in that second half.

"I thought we were poor in the first half and it really annoyed me.

"I just kind of gritted my teeth and be one of the players to spearhead us getting a positive result."

By his own admission, Humphrys - who joined Latics from Rochdale in the summer of 2021 - believes there's far more to come.

"I love playing football, I love being here, and I just want to do the best I can," he said.

"The first season I was here, although we got promoted, from a personal point of view it wasn't particularly successful.

"I had some good spells, but I didn't think it was successful on the whole.

"And obviously last season I spent the whole year out on loan.

"I just want to prove that I'm worthy of a place in this team and hopefully I'm doing that."

Hearts were keen on keeping Humphrys north of the border beyond his loan spell, but Maloney saw a role for him in the new era at the DW.

He’s scored 11 times in 65 games for Latics, although more than half of those appearances have been off the bench.