Wigan manager Leam Richardson delighted for players after win at Gillingham

Goals from Max Power and Tendayi Darikwa in the second period were enough to help Latics record the victory, and leapfrog Sunderland following their away defeat at Portsmouth

Richardson said: "I’m delighted for the players, I thought they came and gave a good account of themselves. We spoke before the game that against Gillingham, you have to do the finer detail really well with their direct style of play.

“Coming off the back of Tuesday, it was important that we came here and gave a good account of ourselves and did the finer details well. In the final third, we were productive, certainly in the second half.

“To come here, it’s always a tough task. We know that - and we know how Steve Evans teams want to play and represent themselves.

“It was important that we stood up to that task and to a man, I thought we did that.

“If I’m going to be critical, could we be more productive and show a little bit more initiative in the final third? I thought we controlled large parts of it, so that is what we questioned at half time, but we did that in the second half and I thought we were worthy of the result today.

“They were good passages of play. To see the lads playing together and getting those relationships, and being in the right areas.

“I thought we worked tirelessly hard out of possession and thought we controlled the game. I thought we certainly deserved them types of goals.

“It’s important that the lads continue the hard work that has been going on - on the pitch - and they sometimes lift the levels. Gav (Massey) was one of them today. He came on and I thought he was fantastic for the goal.

“I won’t single him out, but one of the lads mentioned it before the game. There is 430 mad Latics fans coming down to support them in the rain. The conditions were tough today - not just for the players, but for the fans supporting the team.

“It was important that we gave them that emphasis and hard work, and certainly represent them first and foremost, and get the result so I’m made up today."

“They were always going to dominate possession to a large degree, but we thought that we caused them problems,” said Gillingham assistant Paul Raynor.

“We probably didn’t cause them enough problems on the ball, but at 0-0 they weren’t creating too many chances. We sort of gift them the first goal, which is disappointing.

“With the quality that they’ve got in their side and the quality that they have on the bench and in their squad, you cannot give them opportunities to create chances because they will take them.

“It was important that we tracked their full-backs all the way in, we didn’t, and we got punished for it. You can run forward and try to create things but you have to run the other way and defend. We didn’t do that on two occasions and got punished.”

“We have to look at the reality of two poor goals with an OK performance. We were in the game for large periods.”