Circumstances mean relegation will 'take added time' to process, admits Wigan Athletic boss

Latics were within five minutes of taking their incredible survival fight to the last game, only for a stoppage-time Reading equaliser to put them out of their misery.

The resurgence since Maloney's appointment in January - which saw the results compare more with mid-table than the bottom three - came just too late.

With everything else that's happened since last summer - three managers, one CEO departure, and FOUR late payments of wages - it was perhaps too much to expect a fairytale finish.

When asked whether he'd need extra time to process it, Maloney said: "I think so, because it's so disappointing, the way it's happened, for everyone involved, who travel up and down the country to watch us.

"I spoke really passionately after Burnley about being 'all in', and I'm so passionate, I love my job.

"And a big part of that job is making sure we never have a season - on and off the pitch - like this again.

"You'll win games, you'll draw games, you'll lose games.

"But we need a stable club that our fans know will be here for the next five, 10, 20 years and beyond - whoever is sitting in the manager's seat."

Yet when Charlie Hughes headed Latics in front with only nine minutes remaining, the sliver of hope suggested the greatest of great escapes was still on.

Not that Maloney's demeanour in the technical area altered at all.

"I'm always really calm in those moments, because I know what football can give you, it can also take away," he said.

"But every substitution we made, it was to go more attacking, and even more attacking.

"When you get a moment like we did with Charlie, the challenge is then to come up with a structure to see the game out.

"Unfortunately, from a set-piece, the ball lands to them instead of us, and it's all over.

"I've asked the players to go above and beyond over the last 17 games.

"They've given me absolutely everything to improve this team, and we have...but the task has just been a little bit too big."

The away following behind the goal left Maloney in no doubt as to their unequivocal backing for the rebuild.

But the Scot says it's far too early to be looking ahead to next season, with next weekend's visit of Rotherham still to come.

"The way that we play, the way that we defend the things we're trying to put in place to allow us to attack, you can see we've changed the way we play," he added.

"It has had a big difference in terms of the performances and results, compared to maybe the previous 16/17 games before I came.

"But in terms of looking further forward, that has to come after next weekend, we can think about that after Rotherham."