Wigan Athletic boss expects the DW to be ‘rocking’ against Rotherham

Latics take on Rotherham in their first home match of the season with no Covid-enforced crowd restrictions.

And boss Richardson can’t wait to experience the atmosphere.

He said: “It has been a very long time. After Covid and the administration, it will be great to have the DW rocking again.

“Rotherham will bring a large number of followers, with a fantastic manager and a really good team.

“They have been together for a very long time and are very functional, so we will have our hands full.” Richardson guided his side to a dramatic, 8-7 penalty shoot-out League Cup win at Hull City on Tuesday and was pleased with the character his team showed to prevail on spot kicks, with even the keeper stepping up after the game had finished 1-1 in regular time.

“It is great character building, some of the young lads having the confidence to step up, the lads will take a lot from it,” said Richardson. “No one wants to lose, especially on penalties.

“Jamie (Jones) practices his penalties all the time, I find it bonkers, but obviously he thinks he will take a few in his career.”

The Wigan boss is only expecting things to get better as the team starts to gel.

“These lads are still in the infancy of working together, and are in the early weeks of knowing each other’s physicalities and emotional decisions, so to see signs of life is quite pleasing,” he said.

“We are learning little things like marginal gains, we are mindful about how hard we have to work.

“We know where we are, we have come a long way in the last few weeks. We have come together and are working hard to get where we want to be.

“We saw small fundamental things of what we have been working on”

Richardson was particularly happy with Kell Watts’ debut, just a day after his loan move from Newcastle.

“He’s been here 24 hours and was thrown straight in,” he said.

“ We are still in a big rebuild as a club, but I feel he has settled in exceptionally well, he is a fantastic pro. All his peers speak highly of him as a person, never mind as a player.”