Wigan Athletic boss makes 'dangerous' Blackpool claim after Bloomfield Road draw

Wigan Athletic manager Gary Caldwell believes his side made life difficult for themselves in Saturday’s draw at Blackpool.

Both sides were sitting just above the League One relegation zone and that is exactly where they have stayed after they could not be separated in a hard-fought draw at Bloomfield Road. It was the Tangerines that struck first with just three minutes on the clock as the visitors failed to deal with a Jordan Brown free-kick and that allowed Olly Casey to power home a header. That was how it stayed until the final moments of the first half when the Latics grabbed an equaliser as Owen Moxon’s low drive beat Bailey Peacock-Farrell and nestled inside the far corner of his net.

Both sides created chances to snatch all three points after the restart with Athletic striker Joe Taylor going close for the visitors and Brown bringing an impressive save out of Wigan keeper Sam Tickle with his side’s best opportunity of the second half. However, the spoils were shared in a result that does neither side any favours in their bid to avoid the drop and they will both head into their midweek fixtures looking nervously over their shoulders at the relegation zone.

Latics boss Caldwell offered a mixed assessment of the performance as he praised his side for recovering from conceding an early goal to take a point he felt they deserved.

He told the club website: "I think whenever you go away from home, it's always difficult. We gifted them a goal at the start of the game from a set-piece, which we knew they'd be dangerous from. Their threat all through the game was free-kicks and throw-ins, wherever they had them on the pitch, they were launching the ball into our box. I thought we stood up to that extremely well after the first goal, and at moments we played some very good stuff.

"I think we will continue to get better, it's the first time we've played that formation, and there were certain players who didn't quite get it, but they will do. On the whole, I thought we looked like a really dangerous team when we passed the ball. We scored an absolutely brilliant goal in the first half, and in the second half there were a couple of times we could have got that second goal. We'll take a point on the road, and we now need to back that up with two games in the next week."

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