Gary Caldwell hails ‘incredible’ Wigan players after narrow win over Luton

Gary Caldwell hailed his “incredible” players after kicking off his second spell as Wigan manager with a 1-0 victory over Luton.

The 43-year-old Scot had only been in the job for a couple of days, but he inspired a first league win of 2026 thanks to Joe Taylor’s only goal with 18 minutes remaining.

A desperate defensive effort in stoppage-time – featuring goalline clearances by Morgan Fox and Will Aimson – secured a vital win for Latics, which takes them out of the relegation zone in Sky Bet League One.

“That was brilliant, I thought the players were incredible,” he said. “I know how difficult it is when you’re not winning games, confidence can be affected.

“I thought we were a bit tentative in the first half, unsure about what we were doing, you could see that, although we were good without the ball.

“At half-time we showed them a few clips, to show clearer pictures, and the simplicity of the game that we wanted to play, and they took that on board and carried it out perfectly.

“In the second half, we played really aggressive football, we created momentum, the supporters were right behind us.

“We thoroughly deserved our victory in my opinion, and it will only get better.

“As much as we gave them some tactical information, we said this one was all about behaviours, running, competing, keeping the team more connected, so we could hunt the ball and win the ball back.

“I thought they took so much on board and carried that out, particularly in the second half, we scored a brilliant goal, and we could have had more.

“Every single player, I couldn’t have asked any more of them, they gave me absolutely everything, and that’s what it takes to win games of football.”

For Luton chief Jack Wilshere, it was a ‘missed opportunity’ to gain some ground on the Hatters’ play-off rivals.

“We tried something different, we tried going with two number nines, but we didn’t execute it well enough, we didn’t use them well enough, what they’re good at,” said the former Arsenal and England midfielder.

“We wanted to generate more of a threat, but we have to create better opportunities than what we did.

“In the second half, the game got away from us again, and we lost a bit of composure when they started to become a little bit more aggressive.

“We have to be better, we have to stand up in tough moments. There will be question marks about the team, and about me, and we have to stay together and face it.

“We’ve seen tonight how teams react when they’re fighting for their lives, and we have to learn how to match that.

“Teams are not going to lay down and let us do what we want to do.

“This feels like another missed opportunities, given some of the results last night.

“I thought even at half-time we were probably the better team in the game, but we allowed them to build momentum in the second half.”