Gary Caldwell urges Wigan to build on their ‘first-class’ win against Bradford

Head coach Gary Caldwell challenged his Wigan side to build on a 2-0 victory against promotion-chasing Bradford which lifted them three points clear of the League One drop zone.

A goal in either half from on-loan strike duo Caylan Vickers and Joe Taylor grounded the Bantams, who created very little to trouble Latics goalkeeper Sam Tickle.

Caldwell felt it was a “first-class response” to the 3-0 home defeat to Plymouth in midweek.

“I am delighted with the reaction,” he said. “We weren’t happy with Tuesday with how we performed, and I thought the way we dealt with it as a group and the accountability we showed to do something about it was brilliant.

“The test came at 3pm and I thought the players were absolutely brilliant against a very good team.

“I’ve seen Bradford a lot and they’ve done exceptionally well this year. They are a difficult team to beat.

“I said at half-time that this team won’t go away and they would keep coming, and we had to stand up to real pressure in the first 25 minutes.

“In life, nothing is easy. You sometimes have little dips and things that go against you, and what determines success in that moment is how you respond.

“I thought the whole club – the players and staff – accepted responsibility for that performance and didn’t hide behind it.

“The reaction was first class. There will be other dips along the way that we have to recover from, and today was a brilliant reaction and result.

“It’s only one game and we now have to back it up, which is the challenge now.”

Bradford manager Graham Alexander thought his side paid a high price for not being “aggressive” enough.

“It was a game of nothing before the first goal,” he said. “We had a couple of opportunities before that when we could have scored.

“Their goal comes from nothing. It’s down to us and our compactness as a team and I think we should have been much more aggressive.

“We allowed them to play through us and score and they then allowed us time on the ball and slowed our game right down.

“Once they got the goal they invited us into a game in front of them and I don’t think we had the quality getting in behind their back-line enough.

“But I didn’t feel they were going to hurt us either at any moment. I never felt under pressure and we were in danger of conceding.

“I think we had the majority of the ball second half and the majority of the direction of the game.

“The second goal just takes it just away from us and gives them an extra cushion and it’s a goal we should never concede. It’s just really poor.

“I thought a draw would have been a fair result to be fair. I don’t think either team created enough chances.”