Shaun Maloney refused to blame Thelo Aasgaard's departure on Wigan Athletic's underperformance across the board as they crashed 1-0 at struggling Peterborough United.

Latics barely laid a glove on their opponents, whose manager Darren Ferguson had called them 'embarrassing' and the 'softest' team he'd ever managed after the 5-1 defeat at Lincoln on Saturday.

Wigan Athletic confirm Thelo Aasgaard sale to Luton Town

The visitors obviously missed their talisman and leading scorer off the pitch, and Maloney admitted he empathised with his group, most of whom had come through the Academy with Aasgaard.

Shaun Maloney lost talisman Thelo Aasgaard on the eve of the trip to Peterborough

placeholder image — Shaun Maloney lost talisman Thelo Aasgaard on the eve of the trip to Peterborough

However, he was keen not to make too much of an issue of the situation.

"We obviously had to change the teams, but that's part and parcel of football," he said. "I do have a bit of empathy for the players, because it hasn't been an easy day for any of us...that all happened at breakfast time, which isn’t ideal, these things can happen.

"Honestly, I don't think Thelo had anything to do with the way we played in the first 30 minutes.

"We had to change some things in terms of the balance of the team, but I needed to see more from my team, in terms of competing. And we did that in the second half...much more than in the first half when we didn't.

"We didn't quite get the tactical changes that we made, and I had to change that. Normally I'm really hard on the players, but in this moment, I know it's not been easy for them...I know why we performed the way we did in the first half.

The only goal came on 19 minutes, when Tayo Edun supplied Mahamadou Susoho, who connected well from close range.

"We could have defended the goal miles better,” added Maloney. There was only really Jason (Kerr) went to attack the ball, and we have to defend those moments better.

"As poor as we were in the first half, we didn’t really have much defending to do, they didn’t really threaten us.

"In these moments, it's vital you defend set-pieces well, and there was only really our captain who was going for the ball...we should have done better.”

Only a brilliant save from Tickle to deny Chris Conn-Clarke, as well as a last-ditch tackle from substitute Will Aimson which put off Ricky-Jade Jones, kept the score at one.

Latics’ best chance came in the second period when goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic’s clearance was charged down by Will Goodwin, with the ball flashing just past the far post.

Maloney had shown his displeasure at the situation by making three substitutions at the break, sending on Jon Mellish, Harry McHugh and Jonny Smith for Luke Robinson, Ollie Norburn and Joseph Hungbo.

"In fairness to the lads, after a disjointed first half, I thought we did much better in the second half, they showed a different intent in terms of what we were asking them to do,” added Maloney. “We’ve been asking a lot of Ollie Norburn since he came in, and not having played much for Blackpool But I thought Harry McHugh again did well when he came on.”