Roberts injury adds to Wigan Athletic gloom

The influential playmaker pulled up lame in the dying seconds of the clash with a worrying-looking hamstring problem – adding to the well-documented problems at the moment.

“I think Gary’s done his hamstring, which is a shame,” reported the Latics boss.

“It was an innocuous one, I don’t even know how he’s done it.

“But we’ll assess that and we’ll see where we are.”

Academy graduate Olly Crankshaw took over from Roberts in stoppage-time, and still found time to send in a cross that Sheridan was adamant hit a Gillingham arm for a ‘stonewall’ penalty.

Surprisingly, that was the only substitution made by the boss, who explained his thinking behind that.

“Second half, I didn’t see a problem whatsoever,” he said.

“At 2-1, I don’t think our goalkeeper’s touched the ball for 15-20 minutes.

“I didn’t feel we looked in any danger of conceding another goal...but obviously I was wrong, because we did.

“Then at 3-1, you’ve given yourself a mountain to climb.”

Next up for Latics is Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy clash against Liverpool’s Under-23s at the DW.

While the competition will barely raise a ripple in the list of priorities at the moment, Sheridan says it still represents a chance to get back into the winning habit.

“Whatever the competition, we need to get into the habit of winning games,” he added.

“Hopefully we can get going with that on Tuesday.”