KEITH Curle has urged against reading too much into pre-season games, be it results or performances.

Latics opened up with back-to-back wins against non-league neighbours before losing their first home friendly against League One Wigan Athletic on Saturday.

But whether the outcome is good, bad or indifferent, Curle says results at this stage of the summer will have no bearing on matters once the season proper begins on August 7.

"We know we're taking baby steps, we're nowhere near the finished article,” said Curle.

“We know that every game is building blocks, every training session we've got we're putting markers down and putting fundamentals down of what we want from individual players, whether that be signed players or trialists that have come in and are trying to impress. How quickly can they get on the same page and understand what we're trying to do?”

Latics played three games in a week but then opted against having a midweek fixture in between home games against Wigan and Premier League Burnley, who are the visitors on Saturday (kick-off 1pm).

But Curle said that was a deliberate plan to balance the amount of work being done on the training ground with the appropriate rest.

"We built in the training days, the rest days and the game days so everything is structured,” said Latics’ head coach, who said the performance at home to Wigan could not be compared with a competitive fixture because, in addition to the volume of substitutions from half-time onwards, the build-up was significantly different.

"We worked extremely hard Thursday and Friday in training so it hasn't been a normal match preparation where Thursdays and Fridays you're building up to a game on a Saturday,” continued Curle, adding that his methodology was to make his players mentally as well as physically tougher for the new season.

"The lads physically have exceeded the distances that they would do normally on a Saturday. They'd be doing 11 and a half, 12 and a half, and some individuals 13km on Friday the day before a game. But we're doing it because when the players get fatigued they make poorer decisions so what we're saying is if you can iron those out and you can start making decisions when you're fatigued it means we're all getting on the same page.”