Gary Caldwell muses Wigan Athletic old boy was 'too honest' as Exeter City pay the penalty in defeat

Latics were leading thanks to Martial Godo's early goal when Wildschut - who recently signed a short-term deal with the Grecians - appeared off the bench.

Immediately he was involved, cutting in off the left before being clipped by Latics substitute Liam Shaw.

Wildschut managed to ride the challenge before seeing Sam Tickle tip his shot on to a post and away.

And Latics took full advantage of the let-off with another replacement, Jordan Jones, securing the points deep into stoppage-time.

Leaving Caldwell to reflect on what might have been.

"He's too honest, far too honest," mused the ex-Latics skipper and manager.

"For me, it's a penalty, certainly if he goes down it's a stonewall penalty.

"He's obviously chosen to stay on his feet to get the goal, and that's how it's going for us, big moments are going against us."

Exeter dominated the majority of the encounter on the south coast, leaving Caldwell frustrated with both the result and the manner of Wigan's performance.

"I thought we performed extremely well," he assessed.

"We started the game well, there was no problem in the game, we were in control, they were playing long balls on to (Josh) Stones, and trying to use his physicality.

"They were trying to hit us on the counter attack, so we knew exactly what their game-plan was.

"We gave a terrible goal away, and then Wigan just sat in and camped for the rest of the game, playing very negative football.

"We controlled the rest of the game, we created opportunities, crosses, shots...I think there were 29 shots, and only four on target.

"Obviously we need to be more clinical in the final third, and we can't give teams a goal start, or it becomes very difficult when they slow the game down and play the way they did.

"Even though they didn't counter once in the second half, they stopped the game at every opportunity, which was really frustrating and really disappointing."

Caldwell directed further ire at referee Ben Atkinson for failing to stamp down on what he perceived as 'blatant' time wasting from very early on.

"I think the referee needs to have a look at himself, he's not done his job in those moments," he added.

"The new rules clearly state that teams shouldn't be allowed to do that, and it spoiled the game of football.

"They managed the game by slowing it down after 20 minutes...they say they didn't, but it became a little bit embarrassing if I'm honest.

"It's not the club that I knew, it's not the way I knew that club plays.

"They were very slow, every single player went down at least once, and they were very clever in their approach.

"All credit to them, it's not the way I'd want to win a game, doing that so early, so clearly and so blatantly.

"But that's the referee's job, he has to stop that happening, and he didn't."