Wigan Athletic registered their second consecutive 1-1 draw away from home in the Welsh capital, with Will Keane’s last minute equaliser salvaging a point for Kolo Touré’s side. Here are 5 things we learnt from the game…
1) Never say die!
I’ll be honest, at times yesterday I couldn’t see a way out of the mess we find ourselves in. But one thing I or anyone mustn’t doubt about this group of players is the unequivocal belief that they can salvage something from nothing in tight games like yesterday’s. We had to wait until the 96th minute for the breakthrough but as the saying goes, it’s better late than never. Hopefully this will be a turning point in our season, like the Scott Wooton goal at Bristol Rovers was in our administration great escape.
2) Grim Viewing…
I think it’s fair to say that Cardiff and ourselves are both pretty poor sides. I think you could make a genuine argument that we’re the worst two sides in the division at the moment too, so it’s not a surprise that yesterday wasn’t a classic. There weren’t many clear cut chances for the first 80 minutes and moments of quality were few and far between, basically until they opened the scoring with a totally avoidable goal. The lack of quality was worrying but there were a few moments of promise from…
3) The new boys done good!
Steven Caulker was superb. He’s exactly what we needed and his contributions were felt even more given the fact that Jack Whatmough was absent with a back injury. Strong, commanding and reliable at the heart of our defence, I dread to think what would’ve happened had he not been available! Miguel Azeez was introduced earlier than expected after Jordan Cousins went down injured and the Arsenal loanee looked every bit a Championship player. Good on the ball, forward thinking and energetic, he added something different to our midfield and was very impressive. The hope is we can get a few more players in to have a similar effect as these two did!
4) Charlie Hughes. Remember the name!
This lad is the real deal. Considering he’s been thrown into the first team during one of the worst runs in our history he’d have been forgiven for crumbling like some of his seniors have done, but that really hasn’t been the case. He looks assured, composed and completely capable of playing Championship football and that’s testament to him, the academy staff and Kolo for having the faith to pick him. On the right of our back 3 he was very impressive and I completely believe that’s his spot to lose at this point. He’s our best ball playing defender and he looks the part defensively, we just need to get him signed to a new contract now!
5) 2 games unbeaten, and something to build on. (Just!)
That’s two games where we haven’t lost and as sad as that sounds we should be taking confidence from that. It’s no secret that we’re in trouble and this is far from a season changing result, it’s not even a good result in my opinion, but the point is it’s a start. We look more solid defensively, we’re starting to create a few chances going forward and there are players coming in that can improve us. It needs to happen quickly and we can’t afford to lose points to teams around us anymore but there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Talking Wigan 