Wigan boss Leam Richardson has praised Ipswich Town skipper Sam Morsy while joking ‘he wanted to strangle’ his former colleague during the two teams’ clash at Portman Road.

Morsy scored what looked like it would be the winner as he arrived late in the box to thump Town ahead in the second half, only for Will Keane’s second of the game to level matters inside the final five minutes.

Richardson and Morsy know each other well, having worked at both Wigan and Chesterfield together under Paul Cook’s management, and the current Latics boss knew exactly what he was capable of.

"I was thinking 'I'm gonna strangle him', to be fair," the Latics boss joked, when asked how he felt when Morsy put Town ahead.

"Look, I've worked with Sam over numerous years, and he's such a good player.

"He's a real leader, but he's never really been a goalscorer.

"If you arrive in the box, you're going to get chances like that, and I thought he was excellent tonight, along with a few of their players."

Reflecting on the game as a whole, which saw his side move a point closer to securing Championship football for next season, Richardson said: "It was exactly the kind of game we expected.

"You come here to a really good club, a really good team, who play good football, with very good energy levels.

"Out of possession we had to be at our best, in possession we were probably not as fluent as we have been.

"That's understandable at this time of the season, with what's at stake.

"We knew they'd dominate large parts of the game, but it was always going to be how we responded in and around that.

"They ask you a lot of questions, but I thought we remained a threat on the counter attack all night.

"We probably only started playing as we know we can when we went 2-1 down.

"But with the efforts the lads put in, we were good value for the result."

Wigan will secure promotion if they beat Plymouth at home on Saturday.