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Wigan Athletic chief makes bullish pre-season assessment - 'massive progression' Gary Caldwell insists Wigan Athletic have shown 'massive progression from every game' during pre-season - which gives them hope of being a 'very competitive team' when the real action begins this weekend. Latics rounded off their summer friendly schedule with a 2-0 defeat at League Two Grimsby Town on Saturday. After kicking off last month with a 3-1 home loss to fellow fourth tier outfit Port Vale, Latics won 3-0 at National League side AFC Fylde, before a team featuring a host of trialists and youngsters drew 0-0 at Southport last Friday. Arguably not the ideal preparation heading into Saturday's Carabao Cup first-round trip to Barnsley, but Caldwell's glass - as ever - remains half full. Assessing pre-season on the whole, he said: "Ultimately in pre-season, yes you want to win. Results don’t matter until next week. "But, as I explained to the players, if that is next week, then we’re out of the cup and we have to be better in certain areas. "When we analyse the block of games, and show the players that if we’ve made those improvements from Port Vale, to Fylde and to Grimsby, then I’m sure we can win next week. "With another good week’s training, we look forward to the start of the season for real. Subscribe now for HALF PRICE and catch every minute of our Latics coverage this season - from pre-season to the final whistle. Click here “By the end of pre-season, you want to be ready for the first game of the season, and you want to win, and nothing counts until that first game." Caldwell has been in the game long enough to know not to read too much into pre-season ‘form’. “I’ve been part of brilliant pre-seasons when you haven’t conceded a goal, played brilliantly every game, then you lose the first game, and it’s a disaster,” he said. "I’ve also been part of a pre-season when you don’t win a game and then you win the first game. Ultimately, we will be judged next week, and that is the most important thing. “We are building a new group, we are trying to build a new way of playing, we are trying to see relationships and some team cohesion with how we want to play. “And I think anyone who has seen the three games in particular – Port Vale, Fylde, Grimsby – will have seen massive progression from every game. "If we keep seeing that, then I’m sure we’ll be a very competitive team and a hard team to play against.” Caldwell also spoke of the 'constant evolution' he is overseeing, having returned to the club last February from Exeter City. Phase one of the rebuild was secured, with Latics comfortably retaining their League One status last season, despite the precarious situation he inherited just after the midway point. The next step is already under way, which Caldwell admits is very much a work in progress. “It will be a constant evolution of the team, of how we want to play, of changes through the week, little details within our game that we have to get better, that never changes," he said. “We’re obviously a very new group that’s still getting an understanding and coming together, so that work continues right through until the end of the season, and we will continue to do that next week.”