Caldwell delight as Latics end on a high

Gary Caldwell admitted he was '˜happy with a lot of things' after Wigan Athletic ended their pre-season programme in style with a 4-3 win at Fleetwood.
Gary CaldwellGary Caldwell
Gary Caldwell

Latics recovered from the blow of going behind early to lead 3-1 at the interval, thanks to goals from Max Power, Luke Burke and Yanic Wildschut.

And although Fleetwood made a game of it with a couple of quick goals at the start of the second half, Michael Jacobs’s sublime free-kick ended up being the decider on the Fylde coast.

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“It’s always good to win games,” acknowledged the Latics boss.

“But as I’ve said all pre-season, it’s not about that, it’s about working on certain things that we want to bring into the team and take into the season.

“And I was happy with a lot of the things we did tonight.

“From an attacking point of view, I was delighted with the threat we posed, especially in the first half.

“Defensively I was disappointed with every goal, I think we caused our own problems, and it could have been avoided.”

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Most pleasing to Caldwell will have been the increasingly encouraging partnerships and combinations between his players, as shown by all three goals in the first half.

“It takes time, and I said that from the beginning,” Caldwell recognised.

“And it’s probably the last piece of the jigsaw that comes together.

“But I think you could see the sharpness was coming, the understanding was coming, and we deserved to score the four goals we did.”

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Regarding the three goals Latics shipped at the other end, Caldwell was less generous in his assessment.

“I just think we were on the back foot, instead of being positive and being tight with people, and recognising the cover was going to be there,” he added.

“It’s something we have worked on, and we’ll keep working on and trying to improve.”

An interested spectator in the directors box was former Latics boss Uwe Rosler, who is expected to be confirmed as the new manager of Fleetwood by the beginning of next week.

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