Wycombe boss Michael Duff: We were terrible with the ball, but a win’s a win

Michael Duff admitted the three points were all that mattered after Wycombe’s 1-0 victory at Wigan in League One.

Sam Bell’s goal 10 minutes before the break – after a lightning-fast counter attack involving Ewan Henderson and Fred Onyedinma – was enough to settle a game that was desperately short of quality and excitement.

Wigan’s only threat came in the sixth minute of stoppage time, when substitute Dara Costelloe was denied an equaliser by a fabulous stop from Will Norris.

It was a fourth win in six games in all competitions since Duff took charge in September, even if it was not pretty.

“We were terrible with the ball, there’s no getting away with that,” said Duff.

“We couldn’t pass it from five yards to a blue shirt, but we found a way – and that’s new territory for us.

“We haven’t been winning many games this season…it’s a new group, and our best football has come when we’ve been one or two goals down.

“It’s easy to play like that, because it doesn’t matter, you’ve already lost the game.

“We’ve got the worst record in the league in the first 30 minutes of games, which is evidence that we’re used to going 1-0 down.

“Obviously we needed Will at the end, but I think that’s the only thing he’s had to do in the game.

“Without taking anything away from him, that is his job, it is a big moment, but that is what you want him to do.

“It’s not like he’s had to keep us in the game, and the only real bit of quality in the game was our goal.

“It was always going to come from a counter attack, because we couldn’t pass the ball, and we couldn’t build our way up the pitch.

“But it’s a young group, including players making their Football League debuts, and they will have learned so much from this, when we’ve had to be dogged and rigid.

“Seeing the game out the way we did was really pleasing, and we’ll be better for it.

“Where we are in the league, I don’t think anyone will be too precious about whether it was a good win or a bad win…it was a win.”

Ryan Lowe did not pull any punches in his assessment as Wigan’s wretched run of results continued with a fifth defeat in six winless games in all competitions.

“I’m disappointed…raging to be fair with the goal, because it’s not something we should be doing, conceding from a counter attack like that,” he said.

“We read the riot act to the lads and they gave it a go in the past 20 minutes, we huffed and puffed a lot, but we weren’t clinical with the chances we had.

“There were three good chances there and we should score at least one, but it’s another loss, and we’re all disappointed with that.

“We’ll get to the bottom of it, we’ll do whatever it takes to win games of football.”