Gary Caldwell says ‘outstanding’ Wigan could have beaten Sheffield Wednesday

Wigan boss Gary Caldwell praised an “outstanding” performance from his team in a 0-0 draw at leaders Sheffield Wednesday, saying he felt they should have won the game.

Wednesday’s Mason Burstow struck a post early on while Wigan’s Jensen Weir saw his shot come back off the woodwork in the second half.

It was a welcome point for Wigan following their 4-0 defeat at home to Stockport County last weekend.

Caldwell said: “I’m delighted with the performance. Seven days ago we were standing here after a heavy defeat, a really low moment. The recovery the team has made, a new team to recover in the way it did, play with the quality and personality we did today, I thought we were outstanding.

“I thought we should have won the game. I think anyone in the stadium thought we should have won the game, but we didn’t. It’s a huge step forward as our first clean sheet of the season.

“Our performance level, if we maintain that, then we will win a lot of football matches playing like that.

“I thought, as a whole group, we’ve done something about it (the defeat) and we’ve responded in the perfect way in terms of a proper performance.

“I keep saying we’re a young team, we looked like men today. We played like men on the ball and off the ball. I genuinely thought we were brilliant tactically.

“I thought the players were excellent in how we played through the thirds. We created chances and on another day we should win the game.”

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen felt his side failed to find the form that has taken them to the top of the table, saying: “We didn’t reach our top level today. We got one point, and then there is a lot of things we want to do better.

“First half, I think generally we were good on the ball. They are very, very compact, but I think we were good. But the next level is to have a higher ball speed so we can move them around a little bit quicker.

“Next step is also to bypass more opponents, next step is also to have more situations where we speed up the game, but it’s not so easy.

“And then we have more moments where we create good chances, but of course we want to have more.

“In the beginning of the game, we were really strong. Defensively, I think we were solid, we were not dominant, but we didn’t really create something from an open game.

“Second half, they were even more compact, and here it was clear we struggled a little bit to have high enough ball speed and to have enough run against the deep line.”