WIGAN boss Leam Richardson praised a "very professional performance" from his side in knocking Oldham out of the Papa John's Trophy.

Richardson showed no mercy against a side sitting bottom of League Two as he fielded a strong line-up against Latics.

Having gone almost three weeks without a fixture due to Covid postponements he was keen to give his regular first team players a run-out ahead of a return to League One action this weekend.

Richardson, whose side sit third in the table with three games in hand on the top two, said: "It was a very professional performance.

"As everyone knows, we've been without a game over the festive period, and you can train all you want but we wanted to get distances into the players and get the relationships back up and running.

"We had to look at the circumstances of late, the fact the lads haven't played for two and a half weeks, and we thought it was the right thing to do with the team selection.

"Oldham were obviously very mixed with their team selection, but you can only play what's in front of you and I thought the lads were very clinical and very ruthless.

"We scored some good goals, we're through to the next round, so it was a good night."

Wigan scored three goals in either half, with Max Power's stunning 35-yard free kick to make it 3-0 the pick of them.

"We're going to be hearing about that one for some time," smiled Richardson.

"It was one of many goals we can be pleased with."