Leam Richardson | “Our lads have great resilience”

Manager praises his players after 3-1 win at Lincoln City.

• Leam Richardson | “Our lads have great resilience”
• Wigan Athletic manager on his side’s 3-1 win at Lincoln City
• Richardson: “I think performances breed results, so if you’re playing well then you’ll more or less get that little bit of luck. This time of the season, though, you want to win first and the lads know that; the resilience of them, they know how to win manage games and if their consistencies and habits stay the same, we’ll be fine.”

Wigan Athletic manager Leam Richardson heaped the praise on his players as Latics ran out 3-1 winners at the LNER Stadium on Saturday.

Callum Lang opened the scoring for Latics before Anthony Scully equalised for the hosts, Will Keane put Latics in front before Lang’s second-half strike sealed all three points for Richardson’s side, who have now strengthened their grip on top spot in League One.

Reflecting post-match with Latics TV, Richardson said:

“I enjoyed it just as much as our fans!

“Again, credit to the players for their hard work from Tuesday night, including the lads who didn’t play with how they trained on Wednesday preparing for Saturday – collectively they’re a pleasure to work with.

“We need to keep our habits strong and keep our consistency because we’re trying to get results and be competitive - thankfully we did that today and got the result.

“We spoke about how Lincoln are very good in the early stages of each half; they’re very fast in their restarts, very fluent, coached well and have some really good players.

“I thought our lads took real care and attention to that; when the chances came we took them – a little bit of criticism maybe for their goal but you’d be nit-picking, because we had chances to finish the game off.

“The atmosphere is fantastic here and our away support – it goes without saying – but they out-sing most around the country and when they do that, the energy levels come onto the pitch and when the game was in the balance they helped us.

“We score in front of them again – Langy has a great habit of doing that – and thankfully the lads are still going in those strong areas collectively and the lads at the back have the concentration levels, the lads that go on maintain those levels too.

“I think performances breed results, so if you’re playing well then you’ll more or less get that little bit of luck. This time of the season, though, you want to win first and the lads know that; the resilience of them, they know how to win manage games and if their consistencies and habits stay the same, we’ll be fine.”

Commenting on the performance of striker Josh Magennis, who played a part in all three goals, Richardson added:

“I thought Josh was really, really pivotal for the team today – I thought he knitted everything together, worked tirelessly hard, running the full length of the pitch near the end and where he does 30-yard runs it stops other people having to do a 50-yard run. He’s a senior player, a number nine, and he carries goals but it’s all about everything else he does for the team.”