Wigan Athletic: Leam Richardson reacts to his side's pre-season win against Oldham

His side came from behind to beat Oldham Athletic 3-1 in their friendly and Boundary Park.

Richardson states pre-season is often a combination of positives, negatives, and having things to learn from.

He said: “It was a workout (against Oldham). I think it’s important at the start of pre-season you are mindful of every day that you want to tick off.

“You can dress pre-season games up in different ways, but you can never get too high or too low, it’s about getting the fundamental habits back into the players, doing the correct things at the right time.

“You can’t get too emotionally attached to these games, it’s about the strategy of making sure you are ready as a unit and a team.

“It’s all about application, because if you get that right then it’s the quality of the players that come through and the information that they take.

“We’re not going to dissect this game because it’s clear to see that in the first half we didn’t apply ourselves anywhere near the standards I look for, but throughout the game it improved a little bit.

“It’s part of pre-season, you have up days, you have flat days, and you have learning days, so it was all of the above.

“The intensity will go up, and the base is there for players. We’ve got two games left and it’s about getting correct habits, taking what we were good at last year into this one.

“We will be mindful of the challenge ahead of us and leave behind the things that we don’t need.”

Callum Lang was among the scorers in the second half for Wigan, with Richardson praising the attacker for his display.

“It’s not rocket science, football doesn’t change, it’s a territorial game,” he added.

“It’s how to stop and how to score, having the numbers in the best areas to do that.

“For certain players it’s no formality, you know where you are going to score.

“Callum (Lang) knows that, he goes into the best and bravest areas on the pitch, and normally gets his rewards for that.”