• Wigan Athletic were defeated 1-0 by Wycombe Wanderers at the Brick Community Stadium after a difficult week for the club when they sadly lost goalkeeping coach Kevin Miller, who died at the age of 57.
• In the early stages Latics struggled to compete against the physicality of Wycombe who started strongly and wasted a couple of early chances.
• Latics grew into the game and enjoyed more possession but without really threatening to score.
• In the second half Latics had a shout for a penalty when Fraser Murray went down in the area under a challenge, but referee Dean Whitestone waved play on.
• In a rare attack the visitors broke the deadlock in the 68th minute when substitute Cauley Woodrow crossed for Dan Casey to head home from close range.
• The hosts huffed and puffed but a toothless attack failed to trouble the Wycombe goalkeeper Conor Hazard, and the managerless visitors held out comfortably for the three points.
• Latics are now bottom of the League One table and the Chairboys are in 14th place.

Before kick off a minute’s applause took place to honour Kevin Miller.

Latics had an unchanged line-up from the 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday.

The visitors started strongly with new signing Jayden Wareham firing just wide after five minutes.

Five minutes later and the striker had a great opportunity but he miscued his volley which flew high and wide.

Latics gradually grew into the game and enjoyed more possession but without really threatening to score.

In a rare strike on goal on 41 minutes Murray stung the hands of Hazard from 20-yards, but the keeper comfortably parried away. 

Caldwell made two changes at the half-time break with Dara Costelloe and Brad Burrowes replacing Sonny Perkins and James Carragher.

Burrowes looked lively from the bench but Costelloe once again failed to impress. 

Early in the second half Latics had a shout for a penalty when Murray went down in the area under a challenge, but referee Whitestone waved play on.

In a rare attack the visitors broke the deadlock in the 68th minute when substitute Woodrow crossed for Casey to head home from close range. 

Latics struggled to create any clear-cut chances and the only fleeting opportunity came when substitute Connor Barrett let fly from distance but his strike cleared the crossbar.

Overview

After a much improved performance at Sheffield Wednesday, Latics looked lacklustre against Wycombe. Maybe they had raised their game at Hillsborough but the same players performed poorly in this game.

It’s hard to know how much the death of Kevin Miller had affected the players but this was a very disappointing display against their managerless opponents.

The players struggled against the physicality of a more experienced Wycombe team.  Many of Latics’ younger players found it difficult to compete against a bigger team but there was also a lack of energy and creativity to break down a well organised Wycombe defence.

Latics failed to create many chances but their biggest problem continues to be the lack of a goalscorer. Sonny Perkins was substituted at half time and his replacement Dara Costelloe was equally ineffective. Substitute Scott Hogan entered the fray on 74 minutes and substitute Chris Sze 82 minutes but neither looked a threat in the remaining minutes.

Latics have an EFL Trophy fixture against Blackpool on Tuesday night before a two week break due to international fixtures, but Caldwell must get his players scoring soon or they will become rooted to the bottom the table.

Post-match comments

Speaking to the media afterwards, Caldwell said:

“It’s been a horrendous week, and a day I never want to happen again. As you’ve seen since we announced it, an amazing human being, a brilliant goalkeeper in his day, a brilliant coach, but I think everything I’ve seen has shown what a person he was.

“It’s tough. We didn’t train on Wednesday. You never know what to do in these situations; you never want these situations. You try and do the best you can, try and make the best decisions you can. 

“The week has been horrendous. We’ve lost somebody really important, but as I said, his family have lost somebody even more important, and a special, special person has gone. 

“I thought the stadium early on was a really strange place. Obviously we had everything at the start of the game, remembering Kev, and I thought we did that really well as a football club. I can’t fault the players’ effort; I thought we gave everything. I thought we kept trying; I thought we kept going. It just didn’t look like we could create enough in the final third.

“There’s a long season ahead that we have to keep improving, keep getting better, and I’m sure we will do that. We’ve had a good performance last week. It’s not always perfect. When you lose, everything isn’t always poor. When I get a chance, I’ll assess the game, and we’ll get back to work when we come back on Monday.”

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