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Wigan Athletic chief rues 'ridiculous' defending during defeat at Cambridge United Gary Caldwell bemoaned Wigan Athletic conceding 'three ridiculous goals' at Cambridge United which gifted the hosts three points on opening day despite a spirited comeback from the visitors. Latics were behind inside three minutes when Kell Watts scored against his old club, and Louis Appere doubled the lead before half-time. When Isaac Heath made it three within seven minutes of the restart, with another goal that was hugely avoidable, it looked as though Latics were staring down the barrel of a drubbing. However, sparked by substitutes Archie Harris, K'Marni Miller and Akeel Higgins, Latics at least showed plenty of professional pride to drag themselves back into it. After Sonny Perkins slotted home the rebound after a 25-yard screamer from Higgins had hit the post, Higgins himself netted from a yard to make it 3-2 with 17 minutes remaining. Latics were unable to score a third in a frantic finale, leaving Caldwell to wonder what might have been. "I'm disappointed with the start really, up until probably when we made the on the changeshour mark," he said. "A big thing we spoke about coming here was competing, and we didn't compete, we didn't defend long balls well, we didn't look after the ball well. "Competing isn't just about tackling and running...it's protecting the ball, looking after the ball, being brave on the ball, it's getting one-v-one and getting at people. "We didn't do anywhere near enough of that, and this is the harsh reality of League One football, which we have to get up to speed with very quickly. "While we were a lot better in the second half, the goals we conceded were ridiculous. "You can't concede goals like that and expect to win games of football, and we need to be better, we need to improve. "We knew that at the start of the summer, we knew it was going to be a transitional period. But we need to be better at too many of those things that happened today. "There's loads of things that we need to get better at, but when you concede three goals like we did, you're going to make the game more difficult than it needs to be. "Football is about opportunities, and too many players didn't perform at the level we know they can today." Caldwell also confirmed the reason defender James Carragher was a surprise omission from the team sheet. "He has a thigh injury which he picked up this week," added the Latics chief. "He tried to train on Tuesday, he didn't feel right, and he went for a scan yesterday which showed a small muscle problem. "It should keep him out for seven to 10 days."