Wigan picked up a precious point on their return to the Championship as they produced one of the goalless football results of the weekend. Wigan started the Brighton of the two teams in the early stages and posed questions of their established opponents. The biggest talking point of the game was a sending-off as substitute Ched Evans was sent off in the 80th minute.
Managers Reaction
Wigan’s Leam Richardson: “I certainly don’t think the sending-off helped us in the closing stages. Looking at the first half, I thought they probably shaded it with the couple of chances they created right at the end. But in the second half, I thought we came into it more, and when it was 11 against 11 we were pushing up and creating spaces. After the sending off they were able to drop that extra 10 yards, denying us that space, and we have to be better in moving the ball around. On reflection, a clean sheet, a point on the board, with the same team that won us promotion, I think these lads have done great. It was everything we expected and more from the day, a big derby on the opening weekend.”
Preston’s Ryan Lowe: “We could be better in possession, we had some good moments and some good patterns of play, we got some great opportunities and could have scored a couple of goals. Ultimately Wigan put their bodies on the line for the cause and they had some moments of play and there were good things from them. I thought there were two teams definitely trying to win the game and get the points at either end. I was more pleased with the reaction when we went down to 10 men. I think sometimes we could have had a soft underbelly last season and lost that, but the back lads were resilient. I’d have liked a bit more, I would have liked a couple of goals.”
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