Stevenage boss Alex Revell satisfied despite dropping to second after Wigan draw

Stevenage manager Alex Revell admitted he was satisfied with a 0-0 draw at lowly Wigan despite seeing his side drop to second place in Sky Bet League One.

Neither side were able to break the deadlock in a largely dour encounter at the Brick Community Stadium.

Wigan goalkeeper Sam Tickle made a fine save in the first half to deny Gassan Ahadme, with the home side creating chances of their own but failing to work Filip Marschall.

Fraser Murray really should have won it at the end for Wigan, but he headed wide after a superb cross from Morgan Fox.

“I think it was probably a fair result,” said Revell, who spent a short time on loan as a player at Wigan a decade ago.

“The first half it was more us, I thought we had a couple of good opportunities which we didn’t take, their goalkeeper made a couple of great saves.

“In the second half we just struggled to get up the pitch, maybe a lack of energy, and it was about making sure we didn’t lose.

“This is an extremely tough place to come, it’s a big pitch and we had to work very hard.

“If you keep giving the ball away, it’s going to keep coming back at you.

“We couldn’t get any kind of rhythm going and, when that’s the case, it becomes about not losing.

“It becomes all about resilience, grit and determination, and we were full of that.

“They have a chance that they should score from, absolutely, but they miss it.”

For Wigan head coach Ryan Lowe, it was a case of two points dropped rather than one gained.

“I thought we were excellent, with and without the ball,” said Lowe. “We knew we’d have to defend for large parts against long balls, crosses and set-plays, but I think we should be sitting here with three points.

“Fraser has a fantastic chance at the end, of course he doesn’t mean to miss it, and the hardest part was getting in there, running across his marker.

“You’re just waiting for the net to ripple, but it certainly wasn’t for the want of trying.

“We said to the lads that we would be in for a battle today, and we came out on top in that battle, in my eyes.

“We definitely didn’t want to get into a fight with them, because they’ve got some big, big lads.

“And they know all about the dark arts of football, which is why they arrived here on top of the league.

“Alex has them well equipped, well organised, well drilled, and they were tough to break down.

“We just needed that one moment of magic, which we thought we had right at the end, but it wasn’t to be.”