NEIL LENNON has told his Bolton strugglers they will have to display fighting qualities after the 2-0 home defeat from Huddersfield.
The latest loss keeps the ex-Celtic manager’s side anchored at the foot of the Championship three points adrift of Charlton.
He said: “When you are on top and in the position we find ourselves in, we have to score.
“For first 25 minutes, we were dominant, but you know when you don’t score there is fragility there.
“Huddersfield got the break with the first goal and we seem to sag psychologically.
“Zach Clough had two good chances to equalise, but scoring goals has been a problem all season. It has cost us again.
“We sent them out there to take the game to Huddersfield. They did that and showed they can be a good side.
“However, then they seemed to lose their way and that comes with confidence.”
Joe Lolley and Mustapha Carayol got the visitors’ goals against a Bolton outfit who had ended a run of 17 games without a win by beating Blackburn on Monday.
GARY CALDWELL, on the other hand, believes his Wigan side are on the up and are poised for a quickfire return to the Championship.
The ex-Hoops skipper, who took over as Latics boss near the end of last season, hailed his side after the 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe.
It stretched their unbeaten away run to 10 games and Caldwell said: “It was a really good team performance from us.
“But for a bit more quality in the final third, we could have gone on and won it. That is the only disappointment.
“We got a lot of balls into their box, but it was one of those days where it just would not drop for us.
“Even though we were the away team, we were getting men forward looking for a winner.
“We have now taken seven points out of nine from the last three away games and any team that can do that has to have something about them.
“We are in a good place at the moment. We are playing with a great confidence in each other. And we are looking forward to the challenge ahead.
“We now have three home games coming up, starting with Gillingham, that could shape our season. They are up there where we want to be, so it is a big game for us.
“But as always we will be focusing on how we want to play.”
Wigan are currently fifth in the table, nine points behind second-placed Gillingham with a game in hand.
TONY MOWBRAY was also a happy man, but had to think fast as he hooked former Scotland Under-21 star John Fleck before he was booked in Coventry’s 5-0 win at Crewe.
Mowbray, who lasted only 10 months in the Parkhead hot-seat, reacted quickly to replace the tenacious midfielder as he was in danger of collecting his TENTH yellow card of the season.
That would have brought automatic suspension for the upcoming crucial League 1 showdowns against Walsall and Burton.
Mowbray said: “That booking will come – it has to because of the way John plays – but I’m just delighted it wasn’t on this occasion.
“You can see the impact he has on our team and what he has doing for me ever since I got here. He is so important to us.”
Mowbray was forced to take a back seat during the runaway win and watch from the director’s box after being sent off at Chesterfield last week.
He added: “There were spells in the second-half when we fell off the pace a little bit because, with the best will in the world, it’s hard to maintain that intensity when you’re four goals up at half-time.
“But we’ve won 5-0 away from home, so we can’t complain too much. We started as we intended and we showed the ruthlessness that’s required in this league.
“We feel we can play well against all of the teams in this division, but we don’t always get the goals we should.
“There have been too many times when we should have taken three points and we’ve only taken one.
“But I’d like to think the work we’ve done this week, about how to win matches you dominate, paid off .”
