Let’s start with the positives. Or the positive. I could only find one. Marvin Johnson. For the short time he was on the pitch he looked a cut above anyone else we have seen at wing-back this season, I’m talking about his positional sense, his control of the ball, his decision-making. A genuine Championship level player.

Now, let’s sift through the wreckage. Get it over and done with. I’m not going to try and make sense of what happened. Analytics are all well and good but not always necessary.

The goal. A defensive error leading to us conceding what ultimately became the winning goal. It’s becoming tiresome. Ten of the twelve goals we have conceded in the league this season have been handed to our opponents on a plate. This one came courtesy of Ronan Curtis – heading the ball into our penalty area for no good reason whatsoever. Straight into the path of Asamoah. Ok, Curtis is not a wing-back by any stretch, he’s there because Darren Moore has no trust in Jack Shorrock, but that’s no excuse. Schoolboy stuff from an experienced player.

The sending off. I think their lad’s unlucky. No malicious intent, eyes on the ball. Yes, he’s booted Kyle John in the face, but it’s one of those things. It’s a yellow, nothing more. Maybe the ref felt that an attempted overhead kick from the edge of the penalty area was a bit too audacious for League 1 –  “not on my watch son, off  you go”. It’s a poor decision.

It didn’t help us in any way playing against ten. Wigan, who had played most of the first half on the front foot, attacking us with quick, incise passing and movement, simply changed their narrative. Became pragmatic. Kept a tight shape for the second half, happy for us to have the ball. I don’t want to go into the ref too much, he got the sending off wrong and then spent the second half blowing his whistle whenever the merest contact occurred stagnating the game. That, however, was not the reason why we lost. We need to take a good look at ourselves.

Substitutions. Wow. He just threw on every attacking player available in the hope that something would happen. Devante Cole was moved out wide left for the last 25 minutes to make way for Mo Faal, and that is criminal. Absolutely criminal. The one player we need in the six-yard box is Devante Cole. Faal proved to be more of a hindrance than help. I have defended him on here,  but I just don’t know what to think anymore. It’s ugly to watch. That chance with the header? He has to score. He just has to score.

The lack of urgency. Look, I know possession is the law in modern football, but it is so frustrating. We are losing against a team of ten, thirty-five minutes left to play and we just didn’t go after them. We spent the last fifteen minutes with Stockley and Faal as number 9s, and didn’t get nearly enough crosses into their box. Constantly moving the ball from side-to-side and back again. Risk averse. Utterly predicable. I genuinely cannot think of a single significant save their keeper had to make. It was all too easy. Wigan showed how the game can be played in the opening twenty minutes, quick and purposeful, straight into us.

I am by no means advocating we go back thirty years and adopt that style of football – every ball needing to go forward, hoofing it up the pitch and all that, no, but there does need to be purpose to possession. I’ve nothing against passing the ball backwards when we are trying to create space, create an opening, but when it’s just passive possession – possession for the sake of it – it delivers nothing. It scares no-one.

Dajaune Brown. Had a fantastic opportunity in the first half, put through, past the last defender and still couldn’t get his shot away, one touch too many, defender gets back. I didn’t expect anything more. If he does score a league goal this season it will be by accident.

The midfield. Needs shaking up. No-one should be an automatic choice. It looked disjointed – no fluidity, no bite. A certain player looked far more effective as a makeshift wing-back in the last 15 minutes than he has as a midfielder in recent weeks. What is the situation with Funso? A consistent performer through August and early September, now getting nowhere near a matchday squad.

Anyway, let’s not get too despondent, it’s not the end of the world. A result to galvanise us in our struggles. Let’s keep pushing that boulder.

Up the Vale.