Ryan Lowe speaks publicly for the first time about his Wigan Athletic exit - 'I wish'

The 47-year-old has kept a low profile since being relieved of his duties last month, following the 6-1 thrashing at Peterborough on February 7.

But he was obviously asked about the situation before the game, and spoke positively about both the club and his successor Gary Caldwell.

"It's a fantastic football club," said Lowe. "It's a results-driven business of course, and we were hard done by with some decisions, and having key players missing.

"And when you're not winning games of football, ultimately it comes with losing your job.

"I've got no regrets, there's some fantastic people there, and I wish I could have had a little bit longer to get them out of the bottom three.

"The percentage of us going down was only three percent*, so we were quite calm and collected about that. But ultimately when a change comes along...and I think Gary is the right fit for the football club.

"He's been there before, he's done it as a player and as a manager, he's been promoted. I texted him straight away and wished him all the best, and he did call me, we had a couple of minutes' chat.

"I wish them nothing but good luck, they are a former club of mine now, I'll always look out for them, and I'm pleased to be doing the game tonight.

"I'm pleased for Joe Taylor, who's scoring goals...I'd been after Joe for a while, we discussed him earlier in the season.

"I did contemplate taking him to Preston years ago, but we wanted to see him score more goals, which he has continued to do. He's a fantastic lad, a fantastic character, and he leads the line well.

"All the players are friends, and I wish them nothing but good luck. Hopefully, they've definitely got the quality to climb out of the bottom half of the table."

Sitting alongside Lowe on the Sky couch, former Peterborough United and Hull City striker Aaron Mclean added: "I think they needed a fresh voice, those players.

"They needed someone to come in and give them that new manager bounce. We see it all through the divisions, a new manager comes in and all of a sudden oplayers have got a point to prove.

"They weren't far away. There were games they lost that they probably should have got something out of, and games they drew that they probably should have won.

"So it was only fine margins that needed changing, and Gary coming in has just tipped the scales in their favour. Fair play to him."

* Wigan Today receives weekly updates from more than one company that uses a ‘Super Computer’ algorithm model to predict what will happen for the rest of the campaign, based on pre-season expectations, fixture difficulty, and underlying performance metrics such as xG for and against.

On the Monday after Lowe was sacked, Latics were rated as having a 34.4 percent probability of being relegated.

After the midweek draw at Barnsley, that is currently a 13.1 percent chance.