Wigan Athletic focus turns to Cardiff City clash as gaffer looks ahead to 'tough task'
Wigan Athletic head coach Ryan Lowe has admitted his side are facing ‘a tough task’ as they look to avoid a third defeat inside a week against League One promotion contenders Cardiff City.
The Welsh outfit will travel to the Brick Community Stadium on Saturday after looking to round off what has been a dreadful week for Lowe and his players and boost their own hopes of an immediate return to the Championship in the process.
The Latics crashed to a heavy 4-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers last weekend as summer signing Paul Mullin’s goal proved to be the merest of consolations for travelling supporters on a day their side were well beaten at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Despite calls for a response to that loss, Lowe’s men failed to improve as they exited the Carabao Cup at the third round stage on Tuesday night with a 2-0 home defeat against third-tier rivals Wycombe Wanderers.
All focus is now on Saturday’s home clash with the Bluebirds, and Lowe has stressed his players must quickly move on from their double defeat and will hammer home that message ‘in no uncertain terms’ on the training ground.
When asked if Saturday’s game was an opportunity to answer some questions being posed to his players, the Latics boss said: “Hopefully, yeah, and that’s the message to my players now.
“I don’t want to hear about the Carabao Cup anymore because it’s done and dusted, good luck to Wycombe whoever they get, I hope they get a fantastic draw and go and have a fantastic day out which is what I thought we could’ve done, but I don’t want to hear it in the training ground on Thursday morning because I’ve told the boys in no uncertain terms that it’s Cardiff City now.
“That’s the next one, so we’ll do all the work we need to do on them because they are a good team, flying high, well-coached, a good club with good players. So it’s a tough task, but we’ve got to make sure we give it all. I’m looking at that and it can’t get any worse, it can only get better, and hopefully that’s the case.”
Despite his obvious and understandable anger over their disappointing performance and result against Wycombe in midweek, Lowe backed his players and insisted wins against the likes of Doncaster Rovers and Stockport County show they can reach the levels required to compete with the best in League One.
He said: “Look, they are a good set of lads, I must say that. They are well-coached on a daily basis, when they take on the information, they’re a good team, which we’ve seen against Doncaster and against Lincoln and Stockport and so on, but over the last couple of games I haven’t really seen that, so that’s up to me now to pick the team that I feel can give me that, and pick the team that I feel can go and perform to the levels that they have done before."