Manager Richie Wellens praised his side’s character after coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 with local rivals Bury.
Craig Davies pulled a goal back for Latics just before half time, whilst with 15 minutes remaining, Ben Pringle netted his first goal for Latics to equalise.
Speaking after the game, Wellens said: “Take your hat off to Bury who started the game very well but we started so slow.
“They put the ball in the right areas on a bad pitch and forced us to make mistakes. We tried to play, made mistakes and played into their hands then we go 2-0 down.
“We then had to call upon your character then and I can’t fault my players commitment and effort to try and get something out of the game.
“On another day we might have won it. Once we get to 2-2, it’s a good point for us and we don’t want to lose the game.
“They have to go all out to try and win the game in their situation so a point is a good point for us.”
Whilst Wellens would have enjoyed three points against a local rival, he believes that result could be a good point for his side in the long run.
“Today we have had a bad day, we were nowhere near our best and we have a point and are five games unbeaten,” he commented.
“There will be teams in this league today who have had bad days and lost.
“They have had a really good day Bury, they won’t play better than that and they have not won the game.
“In that first half an hour, we won’t play worse than that and we’ve come out and not lost the game so it’s a positive.”
Latics were backed by more than 2,700 supporters at Gigg Lane. “We had a great support today and we wanted to put on a good performance for them in terms of passing the ball around and playing,” Wellens added.
“We showed we could do that a couple of weeks ago at Blackburn but today was more of a dog fight.
“It was about putting the ball in the right areas, fighting for second balls and Bury did that well in the first half but in the second half, the game could have gone either way.”