Wigan Athletic chief lifts lid on crazy deadline day - 'I won't be doing that again'

The Latics head coach rounded off another eventful summer with six deals in the hours leading up to Monday's 7pm cut-off.

Out-of-favour Josh Robinson and Dion Rankine came to agreements over their contracts, while Jonny Smith left for Gillingham on loan for the rest of the season.

Coming through the door was Swansea City midfielder Ollie Cooper and Coventry City wideman Raphael Borges Rodrigues - both on season-long loans - as well as free agent goalkeeper Toby Savin.

All of which left the Liverpudlian thankful the window is now closed until January.

"I won't be doing that again, because I've never had a transfer deadline day quite like that one, and I don't like it," he said. "Although we managed to pull off three fantastic signings, I like to get my work done earlier than that.

"The problem was, we were governed by players going as well, but fair play to everyone, the hard work paid off, and we managed to get three good players."

The Latics chief lifted the lid on the thought process behind the decision to offload the trio of deadline-day departures.

"It's been difficult for Josh and Dion, two fantastic lads who didn't put a foot wrong for me," he said.

"Josh was injured when I came to the club, he played a bit of football then he fractured his foot, and didn't do pre-season with us.

"He had a mountain to climb already and, because he wanted to play right-back, we didn't feel he'd fit in.

"Dion was a little bit different, he started pre-season with us, did okay,...did we want a little bit more, of course, yes.

"He went to train and play with the Under-21s, he got his head down, and we came to an agreement with him as well.

"Jonny was a bit of a bizarre one really...he came to see me after the Stockport game, and expressed a desire to leave on loan.

"That came as a shock to me, because we'd had a couple of conversations previously, with him and his agent, because there had been interest in him.

"First of all, Jonny is a fantastic lad, he's one of the best kids I've ever met, and he's a top performer. But I think he wanted to play left or right wing, cutting in and getting his shots off, and that's fine.

"I asked him not to leave it too late if he was leaving...he did actually leave it quite late...but we had enough time to react and get Rodrigues in.

"That was massively important, because it would have left us massively isolated, and I wouldn't have let Jonny go if we hadn't been able to do that."

Lowe also confirmed all three new-boys are in contention to start at Lincoln City this weekend.

"All three of them will be in the squad, they're all fit and available for selection," he said.

"We'll obviously have to look at the players who've been performing to good levels already. But Toby will be coming straight in as back-up to Sam (Tickle).

"And the other two will definitely be in the squad for the weekend."