Caldwell always believed in team

Latics struggled to break down their strong, resilient and sometimes over-aggressive Yorkshire opponents.

While they enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, it was in the final third where Wigan didn’t quite click.

As the clock ticked down and it looked like Caldwell’s men were going to have to settle for a fourth consecutive draw, up popped Haris Vuckic to secure a huge victory.

“I always believe in this team, they keep going,” insisted Caldwell after the final whistle.

“If any team was going to win it it was us. They were obviously a threat on the counter by clearing it up the pitch and causing us problems but we kept putting more and more strikers on to try and win the game and I thought we got our rewards with doing that.

“I think we deserved it. We were always the team on the front foot trying to attack, trying to create. I think we’ve played better in terms of being on the ball but they made it difficult for us.”

Caldwell admitted that his side found it very tough to break Bradford down, complimenting his opponents’ set up.

“They had two banks of four and were very difficult to break down with one striker dropping in,” he said.

“They packed out the wide areas and really made us work for our goal but I thought we kept going, we showed great character and belief in what we were doing.

“We kept passing the ball and got our rewards in the end.

“I thought the intensity was fantastic, the overall quality probably wasn’t as good as we have been in recent games.”

There was a slight concern for Latics when Donervon Daniels took a knock after going down under a heavy challenge.

Fortunately though, Caldwell says he isn’t expecting the defender to join team-mates Jason Pearce, Chris McCann and Michael Jacobs on the sidelines.

“He will be ok, he took a kick and was just struggling physically,” said the Latics boss.

“We thought we would get Barney on and we knew that James Hanson was coming at some point to deal with that threat and I thought we did it very well.

“It’s important the injured players work hard, they’re working very hard with the physios and it’s important they get back as quick as they can because it will give the squad a boost and it will give us vital selection issues that we can add to the team and improve us in the remaining games.”