Good day at the office for Wigan Athletic assistant manager Leam Richardson

In their first run-out of the summer, a second-half hat-trick from Joe Garner and a goal from Charlie Jolley took the game away from the hosts, who trailed 3-1 at half-time.

Earlier, Josh Windass had opened Latics’ account in the third minute before goals from Kal Naismith and Callum Lang put them in control.

“The appetite and application from the lads was fantastic. Fair play to Chester because they kept coming at us which made for a good game with plenty of goals and our lads will be pleased with that,” said Richardson.

“Since the boys came back for pre-season their work ethic has been excellent and it’s another good day of work ticked off heading towards the start of the season.

“It’s the first pre-season game for us and all of the lads got a good 45 minutes out of it.

“First and second half everyone did well, the young lads were smashing and the senior pros set a standard and work ethic which everyone followed.”

Latics are next in action tomorrow when they head to Fylde, and Richardson explaining which areas they are working on.

“It’s been a good start to pre-season following on from our training camp in

Spain. It is what it is really,

it’s hard work and you get your head down when you’re training, then you rest and refuel correctly,” he said.

“There’s no easy way around pre-season and when the games come, it begins to get more tactical than physical for the lads which creates good progression.

“We’re looking forward to doing it all again at Fylde on Tuesday with more emphasis on how we’re going to be tactically heading into the games after that.”

After scoring the opening goal, forward Josh Windass was replaced by last season’s Academy top goal scorer Charlie Jolley.

But Richardson reassured supporters the substitution wasn’t because of a setback.

“Josh coming off was just a precaution,” he said.

“He’s been working hard and felt something in the first half, but it was purely precautionary so that we could assess him properly and cut out any risk.”