How ironic is it that yesterday's vital late equaliser was scored by Tom Youngs who may not even have been on the pitch but for the first half injury to playmaker Alex Russell? Youngs, who has been spoken about as a "promising youngster" for so many years that some fans forget that he is still only 21 and a late developer, struck two minutes into injury time to snatch a precious point and notch his third senior goal.

However Russell limped off with a recurrence of the thigh injury that has already forced him to miss half of this season, and left the ground on crutches. As recently as Friday, manager Roy McFarland underlined the return to fitness of Russell as a major cause of hope for the rest of the season. I will be speaking to club physio Ken Steggles tomorrow to learn the latest news so look out for an update here.

Wigan's scorer Stuart Barlow admitted after the match that his tenth minute opener was "a fluke" and the ball that floated inside the far post had been intended as a cross, while manager John Benson pointed to the sending-off of right-back Carl Bradshaw as the turning point of the game:

"I can't defend Carl Bradshaw. He's our skipper but it was a stupid thing to do," he said. "He knew he'd been booked earlier but he went sliding in on their player. That left us down to ten men and we had to re-organise. Even so I thought we still made the better chances."