Wigan Athletic manager Gary Caldwell was disappointed to have to settle for a point against Oldham, after a Jordan Flores straight red card saw the Latics reduced to ten-men, after leading for much of the game.
Max Power had earlier scored his first goal for the club in the first half of a match that Wigan largely dominated.
But Flores was shown his marching orders midway through the second half after an altercation with Jay Fulton in where he appeared to kick out after the ball had been lost, And Dominic Poleon scrambled home soon after to seal Oldham a point in David Dunn’s first home game in charge.
Reflecting on the game, Caldwell said he was content with the result after how is side defended following the dismissal of the Aspull-based midfielder.
“Whenever you go down to 10 men you have to dig in, you have to be strong defensively and I thought we were,” he said.
“Defensively we were first class after their goal. People stood up to the challenge and did their jobs, which earned us the draw.
“It’s a bit of a sucker punch, though, to only come away with a point because we had total control in the first half and we should have been more than 1-0 up.”
On Flores’s sending off, Caldwell says he felt the decision was a fraction soft, but that the youngster will learn from his mistake.
“It was a silly response from Jordan, I don’t think it was much but as we see so often, if you give the referee a decision to make then you can pay a heavy price,” Caldwell said.
“Football can do that to you, he’s let his team mates down.
“He’s understandably very low at the moment, but he’ll get over it and come back a better player.”
With two quick-fire home games for Wigan in the next seven days, time will tell if the point at Boundary Park turns out to be a good one.
Millwall visit the DW on Tuesday night, followed by high flyers Walsall who are unbeaten away from home but Wigan will know that their home form is as good as anybody’s in the division.
And Caldwell again praised the fans as 1653 fans made the trip to Oldham and said the fantastic backing certainly is not going unnoticed.
“We needed the fans towards the end, they were singing for the last 15 minutes when we needed them the most,” he said.
“As long as we can go into our two home games now and get six points from them, then I think the supporters will look back on this as a very good point.”
Image courtesy of Wigan Athletic, via Youtube, with thanks.
