Le Fondre gives Gary a headache

The much-travelled frontman, on a season-long loan from Cardiff, marked his first Wigan Athletic start with his maiden goal in the 2-1 victory over Wolves, with whom he spent an unhappy loan spell last term.

In doing so he justified Caldwell’s decision to start him ahead of top scorer Will Grigg, who came off the bench to score the late winner.

“Adam looked a very confident player out there,” enthused the Latics boss.

“For whatever reason he didn’t get games, or the amount of games he wanted, at Wolves and Cardiff.

“Quite often that’s political reasons rather than performance reasons. When I met him, he had a hunger to play and hunger to prove to people he can still play at this level.

“He was keen to get back up to the north west, and I think that’s helped him to settle and get comfortable.

“He just needs games now but, as I said to him when he signed, he’s coming in against a guy who’s scored loads of goals for this club and is an important player.

“I told him he might have to bide his time, but he’s done that, he’s worked extremely hard in training. I still don’t think he’s fully fit, and he still has so much more to give.

“But when I’ve seen him before, he’s a goalscorer – and he showed that again on Tuesday. It was trademark Adam Le Fondre, the goal he scored.”

Caldwell admits he now has a major selection headache ahead of Saturday’s tough trip to Brentford.

“And that’s what I want,” he added. “Too often this season, it’s been too easy for me to pick a team, or the team has picked itself because of personnel.

“Adam coming in is great, getting injured players back gives me another problem. It’s always better to have to make decisions, rather than be forced into playing only those you have at your disposal.”