Cheltenham manager Darrell Clarke was delighted with his side’s point at Wigan despite being far from their best.
Town had taken the lead inside nine minutes through Matty Taylor, but were pegged back seven minutes after the restart when on-loan Liverpool defender Luke Chambers fired home via a huge deflection.
“It was a tough night for us,” said Clarke, whose side had to dig deep as Wigan dominated both the possession and the territory, without really looking likely to force home a winner.
“We spent a lot of time without the ball, and we weren’t at our standards with the ball.
“But I’m delighted with the point, because if you can’t perform as well as you can, don’t lose the game and we did that.
“We defended superbly, and I feel a bit unfortunate with the goal we did concede, because it is a foul in the lead-up.
“But on the balance it was a tough night and we’ll take our point.
“Matty has taken his goal well, which is pleasing, but it wasn’t an easy watch, if I’m honest with you.
“They had a lot of the ball and the territory, without really causing us too many problems.
“But we didn’t look after the ball enough on the transition to get more of a foothold in the game.
“The effort, commitment, desire was there for all to see, and probably five or six months ago we’d have lost that game comfortably.”
For Wigan boss Shaun Maloney, it was a case of two points dropped – although at least it stopped the rot after two home defeats on the spin.
“I was probably a little bit disappointed we didn’t win it really,” acknowledged Maloney, who made a triple substitution at the break, such was his unease at that time.
“I think to have that amount of possession, and to be camped in their half for the whole of the second half, I am a bit disappointed we didn’t win it.
“But we have to respect the opposition, and when you concede to a set-play that early on, you immediately know it’s going to be a very difficult night in store.
“I didn’t like the first half very much…we had a lot of the ball but we didn’t have any real threat.
“The second half felt completely different and, to be fair to the players, I could feel the tension, and they kept trying to break down a very resolute Cheltenham team.
“I liked the second half, but in the first half I need a lot more.
“We made the three changes at half-time, and I just needed a different profile on the pitch.
“I knew if we did certain things, we’d have a lot of the ball, but we just needed more threat.
“Sometimes when a team is sitting very deep, you need players who are very good at one-v-ones.
“I knew if we had that, we’d create crossing opportunities, and the three boys who came on, I was really happy with.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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