Manager Steve Robinson felt their were plenty of positives to take from Saturday’s pre-season defeat.
Latics were beaten 1-0 by National League North side AFC Fylde courtesy of a Stephan Crainey free kick but the manager admitted after the game there were pleasing aspects of his sides play.
He said: "I know where we are. The result at this stage does not matter. Of course you want to come away and win five or six nil but that’s not where we are.
"I’m not kidding anybody, we are two weeks into training and we have 14 new players. Take the free kick out of it and there were a lot of positives from our play.
“We looked a lot more organised from dead balls and offensively we were sound and it’s the little bit in the final third that we need to work on.
“We maybe need to add players into the areas of the pitch, maybe out wide and that’s what we’re working on at this moment in time.
"We need a little bit of width and pace on the wing. I thought Crofty and Flynny did well today. They are clever players and they linked up well.
“We do need a little bit of an injection of pace and that’s what we are on the look out for."
The defence drew praise from the manager: “I thought defensively we were solid,” he admitted. The two young boys (George Edmundson and Jamie Stott) came on and did excellently.
"That was a positive and everyone is buying into what we are doing defensively. We are a bit away with our sharpness, we know that.
“Everyone is two weeks ahead of us and we’re playing catch up so we know what we need to do."
Latics host Wigan Athletic tomorrow night in a pre-season friendly as the season draws nearer.
“It’s another hard test but you find out a lot about players in these pre-season games,” Robinson said.
“We can come away and play a team six leagues under our league and win 6-0 but it doesn’t really tell me anything.
“It doesn’t tell me anything about their fitness, their character or where we are in terms of our play.
"Wigan will be a big test and so will Grimsby. We are looking to step up fitness wise and sharpness wise and players will get to know their game.”
Watch the full interview on Latics PlayerHD.