Joel puts in the graft

ENJOYING TRAINING: Joel Coleman.

JOEL Coleman’s last experience of playing at Blackpool saw him put in a rock-solid performance that gathered acclaim and silverware.

The 20 year old was part of an Athletic under-18s side that lifted the Lancashire FA Youth Cup - thanks in no small part to his two saves in a penalty shoot-out.

It isn’t always a smooth path to becoming a first-team regular, as he has found. Coleman was displaced as number one by David Cornell for most of the reign of David Dunn, but has since become undisputed first choice for John Sheridan.

“If you get down about being left out, you won’t get better,” he said. “It isn’t nice being left out, but everyone has to come back from it. I have worked on a few things.”

The clean sheet at Wigan featured a special save low to his right from Will Grigg that would have wrong-footed less-agile goalkeepers.

Coleman is hungry to make a difference in an Athletic shirt: “I have been wanting to make big saves of the sort that earn us points and I don’t think I have done that enough this season,” Coleman said.

“Hopefully at the back end of the season, I will do that a lot more.”