Wigan Athletic boss Gary Caldwell on trialist Nico Lawrence, Tobias Brenan and youngsters impressing
Former Southampton youngster Nico Lawrence is currently on trial at Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic boss Gary Caldwell says the club will continue to assess trialist Nico Lawrence after the former Southampton youngster featured in Saturday’s pre-season defeat to Port Vale.
The 22-year-old centre-back started for Latics in their opening summer friendly at the Brick Community Stadium as Caldwell’s side fell to a 3-1 loss.
Lawrence spent three years with Southampton and gained senior experience during loan spells at Torquay United, Colchester United and MK Dons, before later featuring for York City and Farnborough.
Caldwell revealed the defender is a player he has admired for some time, having previously monitored him during his spell as Exeter City manager.
“He is somebody we’ve brought in,” Caldwell said. “He is somebody we’ve looked at before at Exeter. We looked at him a number of times when we were there, and he just went to different clubs.
“So we felt like it was a good opportunity with the numbers we do have and the low numbers we have, to one: bring the numbers up, and two: look at him and see what he potentially has, so we’ll assess his performance and see where we take that next week.”
Last week, transfer speculation emerged on social media regarding young midfielder Tobias Brenan, who is reportedly attracting interest from League One and League Two clubs that are monitoring his situation at Wigan.
The 20-year-old has shown plenty of promise since he signed a permanent deal with Latics in January 2025 following a successful trial period, and he enjoyed a spell on loan at National League side Harrogate Town towards the end of last season.
When asked about the recent speculation, Caldwell seemingly dismissed it by saying: “We’ve had nothing, no, nothing.”
Saturday’s friendly against Port Vale also provided opportunities for a number of Wigan’s young players to impress.
Academy graduate Harrison Rimmer scored Latics’ only goal of the afternoon, while K’Marni Miller and Chris Sze also caught the eye with encouraging displays.
Caldwell admitted pre-season offers an important platform for the club’s youngsters to stake their claim for first-team involvement.
“Harrison hasn’t been with us as much as other players,” he said. “Harrison and Sam Bolland have just come in for the last two games we’ve had, so they’ve not trained a lot with us.
“But the other players, K’Marni (Miller), Chris Sze’s done really well over pre-season so far, so those young players have an opportunity to show what they can do and any time they get on the pitch, it’s important they take that and keep trying to keep themselves in and around the first-team as much as possible.”
Next up for Latics is a pre-season friendly against AFC Fylde at Mill Farm on Saturday afternoon (3pm) as Caldwell continues shaping his squad ahead of the new League One campaign.