Wigan Boss Gary Caldwell Left Raging By 'horrendous decision' as Preston lose again

23 September 2016 22:40

Wigan boss Gary Caldwell fumed at the officials after Jordan Hugill's early goal condemned his side to a seventh game without a win, 1-0 at Preston.

Hugill deflected Aiden McGeady's 20-yard strike beyond the wrong-footed Adam Bogdan after just seven minutes, with the visitors later spurning several chances, the best of which saw Nathan Byrne denied by a post after the break.

But Caldwell, whose side have now lost five of their last six Championship games, felt a foul on Shaun MacDonald in the build-up to Preston's goal cost his side a valuable point away from home.

"It's a horrendous decision. The linesman clearly says it's a push and for some reason - either the ref is deaf or he chooses not to take the advice," he said.

"I think the whole stadium has seen that it's a push in the build-up.

"We were the better team for 89 minutes. We controlled the game, created great opportunities. There was nothing in the game.

"You have to deal with long balls at times and we dealt with them comfortably."

Despite feeling aggrieved at the goal, Caldwell felt his Latics side should have done more to take a point which would have seen them escape the Championship's bottom three.

He added: "It is not good enough losing games like that. We were so much better than Preston on the night in my opinion, but ultimately we didn't win so they deserve the credit. Football is about winning.

"We needed a little bit of know-how second half. We got a bit anxious, we started forcing it late on through the middle and caused our own problems on the counter-attack."

For Simon Grayson's Preston, playing their third game in a week, three points were much needed, having gone into the weekend's fixtures with the most losses of any team in the division with six.

"It was a tough game," Grayson said. "The stats will prove that Wigan had a lot of possession, but over the course of the game we had the clearer chances.

"It was nice to get that little bit of luck with the goal, because we've not had that much this year. We will take it and we played well enough to justify winning.

"But in this game we were disciplined and played to the shape of the team.

"The players played with their heads rather than their heart, they kept the ball and opened them up at times. We saw the game out really well, we did what we needed to do which was really pleasing."

Source: PA-WIRE