Wigan Athletic 2 Northampton Town 3

 “I think if you watch the first half – other than Dan Gardner having a great strike – we just gifted the opposition chances to score goals and we went in again 2-0 down. It is a pattern of our performances where we have started flat again in the first-half and we go in with a mountain to climb.

We deserved to go in behind but the goals were down to us; we give the opposition so many chances to score goals. I can’t stand getting beat and it really hurts me so much that we are on our bad, bad run. You can see the team we have picked and we have a lot of injuries that have come at a bad time – the team was makeshift and very young but I have to give them credit for the second-half performance because I thought we were excellent.

I said to the lads that chasing the game you have to be brave and not worry about making mistakes and I think we did that. I look at them in the second-half and I see loads of things that weren’t there in the first-half; we were on the front foot, sharp and creating chances.

We got back in at 2-1 and Northampton were clutching at straws whilst we looked to get the equaliser but then we have the killer blow of conceding a silly, silly goal against the run of play. We didn’t stop and there were a lot of things to come from the second-half from a young team as well.”

John Sheridan once again gave an honest appraisal of the game. With seven players out injured the manager had to reshuffle his pack. His starting line-up contained three players from last season’s senior squad, three players on short-term contracts and five from previous seasons’ U23 squad. Ollie Crankshaw and Thelo Aasgard, 18, were given their first starts in a League 1 game. Current youth team forward Harry McHugh made the bench for the first time.

When play commenced the first player to quickly catch the eye was the Cobbler’s Harry Smith, a towering 6ft 5in centre forward who used to play for Macclesfield. Smith may not be among the division’s top strikers, but his height and physicality caused problems to Wigan’s central defenders, Tom James and Adam Long, both around 5ft 11 in tall. After 22 minutes and with Latics two goals down Sheridan took off right back Crankshaw and brought on Emeka Obi. The 19-year-old has a long way to go before he is going to be the finished product but, like Smith, he too is 6ft 5in and his presence helped diminish the big target man’s effectiveness.

The centre of defence has been most problematic for Sheridan. Eight players have been used there so far and the disruption has prevented the gelling of the back four. Darnell Johnson and Curtis Tilt started four games together, giving them a chance to gel a partnership, but both are out of action due to injury.

The second half saw Kyle Joseph make his debut, coming on after 73 minutes. The 19-year-old Scotland youth international striker was among the young players touted by big clubs over the summer when Latics went under administration. He gave us a glimpse of his sharpness in the penalty box as he turned and was unlucky to see his effort hit the post in the 84^th minute.

Let’s take a look at how fans reacted to the match through the message boards and social media.

Our thanks go to the Vital Wigan – Latics Speyk Forum and Twitter for providing the media for the posts below to happen. Thanks go to all whose contributions are identified below:

Kenny Morris commented:

Obi got slated the last time he played because everyone said he was out of his depth, so would you have had him on from the start? Everyone said we couldn’t play two youngsters at CH

James does play Centre half, as he himself said in his interview this week. It wasn’t working so Sheridan changed it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing that seems to be here in abundance.

Arthur_Itis said:

Negatives have been covered in previous posts, a few positives for me:
Showed great fight in the second half, Gardner had his best game by a mile, although faded late on.

Perry looked assured on the ball and played some lovely through balls. Aasgaard seems to have a great first touch and great balance, reminded me a bit of Gelhardt.

Jones pulled off some good (and crucial) saves. Obi will have gained a lot of confidence from today, and a lot of experience playing against a beast like Smith. Long looks great on the ball and has the confidence to show for it.

Pearce never stopped running and his surge into the box for the penalty showed great positivity. Hopefully that will do his confidence some good as well. James also never stopped running once back at right back. We have 2 decent full backs for this level.

The second half high press was very effective and we need to employ this approach from the first minute, not the 46th.

Finally, there are teams as bad as us in this division, but we will hopefully have time and resources to improve and avoid relegation if the takeover goes through. If it doesn’t we have more things to worry about than losing a football match.

It’s still early days yet.

FrancosLoveChild stated:

There is a good team in here but we sadly don’t start games anywhere near the standard for league football which cost us because we always seem to start playing well after going 1 or 2 down. Still some time

You are my sunshine opined:

Back 4 team selection/1st 25 mins cost us that game!

At least he binned Tuesdays negative formation but Sheridan should be playing players in their best position. Crankshaw is not a RB ,he is a RW! It’s a big step up for these lads as it is, let alone in an unfamiliar role. As soon as James went to RB to deal with Adams and Obi came on to get to grips with big Harry Smith we improved,as those 2 in particular caused us all sorts of problems that 1st 25 mins.

2nd half I thought we were superb, especially considering how many young lads we had out there. We were really unfortunate not to get a point in the end when Joseph, who was lively when he came on hit the post. Although not always with great quality, we put a lot more crosses in today and showed much more attacking intent than MK.

Pearce mom for me. Gardner has been poor this season, but I thought he had a much better game today. Obi did well when he came on, using his height and physicality to deal with Smith. Perry was tidy again.

Those lads showed today they can play and have good character to keep fighting despite the setbacks. This gives me some encouragement and hope going into another big game at the bottom on Tuesday at Blackpool.