Birmingham manager Chris Davies admitted the energy of his side ground down Wigan as they continued their solid start to the Sky Bet League One season with a 2-1 home win.
Scott Wright marked his debut with an added-time winner for Davies’ side after Alfie May’s calm first-half finish after 18 minutes was cancelled out by Thelo Aasgaard’s 66th minute equaliser.
Victory puts Birmingham third, only off the top spot on goal difference behind leaders Stockport and Wrexham.
“Something I’m trying to reinforce to the players is our energy, how hard we work and our running is going to make teams find it hard to stay with us,” said Davies.
“You see the amount of their players getting cramp and everything else like that.”
Davies added: “We’re never going to have easy games. They’re all going to be hard and I felt today would be a real challenge.
“Wigan are quite a proactive team – they try to press you and they continue to try to play as well, so we had to be really ready for that.
“But I thought we were the best team in the first half. We scored a good goal and had some nice moves.
“Then in the second half I thought they had a little period for 10-15 minutes when they were a little bit brighter and caused us a few more problems.
“But then we regained control and pushed on.”
May latched onto a through-ball from Willum Willumsson before finishing past goalkeeper Sam Tickle to maintain his record of scoring in every League One game this season.
Aasgaard levelled after Blues failed to closed him down quickly enough, before his low shot squirmed through goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell.
But after City spurned several chances, Wright netted after Marc Leonard’s corner was crossed in by Paik Seung-Ho, and following a brief scramble Christoph Klarer backheeled the ball across goal.
Wigan manager Shaun Maloney said: “We had a bit of bad luck today, I think, a real mix of emotions.
“I am absolutely devastated with the result but I have massive pride on how we came here and played.
“I think up until we went down to 10 we were really good and then sometimes a bit of bad luck makes your day a lot harder.
“No game’s a free hit – we have people paying to come and watch us.
“I loved preparing for the game, I actually just see it as an amazing challenge.
“I thought our players were brilliant playing under real pressure and I loved the atmosphere.
“There was definitely a 10-15-minute spell after they scored where you could really feel the atmosphere and we had to suffer.
“Then I thought the second half we were growing until Steven Sessegnon’s injury.”
