Wigan Athletic boss refuses to blame defeat at Peterborough United on the sudden sale of star man
Wigan Athletic manager Shaun Maloney refused to blame the sudden departure of star man Thelo Aasgaard for his side’s defeat at out-of-form Peterborough United on Tuesday night.
The Latics failed to register a single shot on target against League One’s leakiest defence as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat. On-loan Posh midfielder Mahamadou Suhoso scored the only goal of the game in the 19th minute.
Norwegian Aasgaard, Wigan’s top scorer this season with 12 goals, joined Championship side Luton Town in a £3.5 million deal yesterday evening.
"We obviously had to change the team, but that's part and parcel of football," Maloney told the Wigan Post. "I do have a bit of empathy for the players, because it hasn't been an easy day for any of us, but I don't think Thelo leaving had anything to do with the way we played in the first 30 minutes.
"I needed to see more from my team, in terms of competing and we did that in the second half, but the game was lost in the first half. I can accept how we played in the second half, although we didn't create enough for the areas we got into.
“There are some things we had to do tactically today that didn’t work in the first half. They were definitely better than us in the first half.
“It still hurts when you lose one of your best players. He’s an amazing guy, and I’ve enjoyed watching his development over the last two years.
“It’s tough news for us, but congratulations to him. We’ll move on pretty quickly as a squad. It’s my job to develop the other players in the team now, and give the fans better performances than what we did tonight. In the second half, they showed a different intent and understanding of what we wanted them to do.”
Wigan are 16th in League One, just three points and two places above Posh, albeit with a game in hand.”