Wigan Athletic chief on playing better in defeat, THAT disallowed goal, Jason Kerr and Charlie Goode

Shaun Maloney believes Latics played better against Stevenage than against Reading and Wycombe

Latics looked on course to pick up a third home win in the space of seven days when Josh Magennis (penalty) and then Thelo Aasgaard put them ahead against play-off chasing Boro.

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But things unravelled after the break, with Latics pinned back and unable to hold on against their very direct opponents, who ended up winning by the odd goal in five.

"I actually thought we played better today than in the previous two home games we won," assessed Maloney.

"But if you don't defend your box well enough, you're going to get hurt."

It could have been so different had Charlie Hughes not seen a seemingly good goal in first-half injury-time - which would have made it 3-1 - chalked off for an apparent foul at the near post.

Maloney, typically, refused to make too much of it after the game.

"I've only seen one angle, and I couldn't really see if it was a foul or not," the Latics boss said.

"Probably only the players in that area of the field would know.

"It was a big moment but, look, it's done. The referee was having a hard enough time as it was, but it didn't go for us."

One of the plusses was the performance of Jason Kerr, who played for more than three-quarters of the game on his first league outing for almost 15 months following a serious knee injury.

"We just went really attacking at the end, that's the only reason Jason came off," explained Maloney.

"It's just really good to have Jason back in the group.

"He's been out for, what, 14 months, since his last league game, and he's worked incredibly hard to get back where he is."

Kerr stepped into the backline to replace Charlie Goode, who damaged a shoulder on debut against Wycombe in midweek and was deemed too much of a risk to feature.

"He wasn't that close in the end," added Maloney. "All the medical guys, the shoulder expert, they all said not this week.

"It would have been nice to have him in this game, because he was brilliant against Wycombe. But hopefully he's back soon."