Barnsley boss frustrated by Wigan Athletic draw - 'a team that’s battling at the bottom'

Latics totally dominated the first half, but had only Joe Taylor's 29th-minute goal to show for their efforts.

Taylor and Callum Wright saw shots well saved by Owen Goodman, with the latter seeing another stinging drive beat the goalkeeper only to come back off a post.

The second half was a different story, with Barnsley showing much more of an attacking threat.

However, Latics managed to keep them at arm's length until the 88th-minute sending-off of Wright for a second bookable offence.

And after Luca Connell and Corey O'Keeffe hit the Wigan woodwork, substitute Charlie Lennon eventually found an equaliser in the sixth of nine added minutes.

"It was a frustrating night," assessed Hourihane. "In the first half we just weren’t at the level we needed to be. The energy wasn’t there. We were flat.

"We came into these two home games, against Wigan and Doncaster, wanting to really attack them and see what we could take from both fixtures. But in that first half, we simply weren’t at it.

"Wigan were happy to sit back, and they’re obviously fighting for their lives, so they’ll take anything they can from the game.

"We made it even more difficult for ourselves by giving them a leg-up with a poor goal from our point of view.

"If you give a team that’s battling at the bottom a sloppy goal, they’re going to sit back even more and make it even harder to break them down.

"So yes, I was really disappointed with the first half, and I made that clear to the players at half-time because I wanted more.

"Credit to the substitutes, they all came on and made an impact. They gave the game a different dimension and brought a real freshness.

"And to be honest, on the balance of play and with the territory we had in the second half, we probably deserved to take something from the game.”

The result leaves Latics just a point outside the League One relegation zone with nine games to play.