Wigan head coach Ryan Lowe hailed two-goal midfielder Fraser Murray after the Latics kicked off their Sky Bet League One campaign with a 3-1 victory over Northampton.
The summer signing from Kilmarnock scored Wigan’s first and third goals, which sandwiched Jensen Weir’s header at the end of the first half.
Town pulled one back through Michael Forbes 20 minutes from time, but Wigan were very good value for the three points.
“Probably not many people will have known about Fraser, having been up in Scotland,” assessed Lowe.
“He probably went under the radar a little bit, but you can see he’s got two good feet, with quality in each.
“You can see straight away the quality he has, he’s different class, and I’m really pleased for him to have started so well.”
Wigan could – and perhaps should – have won by even more, with Murray and Weir being denied by Town goalkeeper Lee Burge, and both Dara Costelloe and Paul Mullin fluffing their lines from great positions.
“It’s obviously great to score three goals, although I’m disappointed with their goal, albeit it was a well-worked set-play,” said Lowe.
“Overall I thought the lads were fantastic, our set-plays were very good, and to score three goals and perform the way we did, I thought we were excellent.
“We could have scored even more goals…Dara’s one, I thought he could have chested it, but he’s headed it, and he’s got too much on it if anything.
“That’s what he gets for getting his hair cut on a Thursday…he should have left it growing!
“But the main thing is he’s in those positions to begin with, and everyone can miss a chance no matter who you are.
“Mulls said the ball just got stuck under his feet at the end, but as long as we’re creating chances, the goals will come – as we saw today.”
For Cobblers boss Kevin Nolan, it was a very long day at the office.
“It’s a tough start and I’m disappointed because a lot of the work that we’ve done in the summer didn’t show today,” he said.
“Sometimes it happens in football and you can’t put your finger on why but we’ll certainly be looking at it in the next few days.
“We’ll look at where we need to improve and we’ll work on it.
“Sometimes it just comes down to winning those 50-50 duels and I felt we missed out on too many today.
“That’s what upset me more than anything else.
“There was not a lot in the first half but we give away a really poor goal and then they score from a set-piece, which again I’m not happy about. People got things wrong.
“It’s a new squad and we gave out 10 debuts today so it’s a big turnaround but there are no excuses.
“We were beaten by a side who were better than us on the day and sometimes you have to take that on the chin.”
