Wigan Athletic boss makes attacking admission after Stevenage draw

On the plus side, Latics recorded a third clean sheet in a row, and made it five points from the last three games, as they kept their opponents at arm's length.

However, at the other end, they scarcely looked like breaking the deadlock despite enjoying the lion's share of possession.

"Without the ball, I was really, really happy with what we did, because they're quite a tough team to play against," assessed Maloney.

"They can get the ball in your box really quickly, really aggressively and we restricted them to one chance early on when they had a set-play.

"With the ball, there was just a little bit of frustration, because we're doing a lot of things pretty good, but just not quite enough as a team attacking wise.

"We had nine players who didn't do pre-season with us, and I think you can see that at times, we can definitely get better attacking wise in certain positions.

"We're only talking small margins in terms of the distances players are between positions, but it does have a big impact.

"It was a difficult post-match to speak to the players, because I don't ever want to feel like - and this is not meant as disrespect to Stevenage - you draw 0-0 at home and you're happy with that.

"You're never ecstatic to draw 0-0 at home, but it was very difficult to be very critical of the players...it's on me to give them better coaching in that attacking area I think."

Maloney had raised eyebrows before the game by making five changes to his starting XI.

In came Toby Sibbick, Baba Adeeko, Scott Smith, Callum McManaman and Dale Taylor, for James Carragher, Matt Smith, Thelo Aasgaard, Dion Rankine and Joe Hugill.

And Maloney confirmed his selection had been influenced by the fixture schedule, with Latics playing the second of six matches in the space of just 17 days.

"It was all down to the schedule of games," said Maloney, who was able to send on Michael Olakigbe during the second half for his debut, after suffering a leg break in pre-season.

"I also think back to last year, and some of the lads - particularly the young players - get to the second or third game in a week and it becomes difficult.

"They'll maybe get through it, but the performance levels won't be the same, so I tried to bring in some freshness.

"We obviously didn't win the game, so it wasn't successful, but I thought the players that came in all did well.

"I could have kept the same team that did well at Bristol Rovers and Lincoln, but then I have to make five or six changes for Exeter at the weekend.

"I was trying to make those decisions earlier, and that's just my job, I have to make those decisions."

Olakigbe was arguably his side’s best player on the night, setting up a great chance for Baba Adeeko and seeing another shot tipped round the post by Murphy Cooper.