The Latics entertained their bogey side Fulham at the DW Stadium yesterday, as usual Martinez’s men ended up with nothing to show from 62% possession apart from a late, late consolation goal by Arouna Kone as the Cottagers ran out comfortable 2-1 winners
Di Santo, who suffered a calf injury in training, was sorely missed by the Latics, so too was James McArthur who was forced to drop to the bench as he battles to shake off his troublesome back injury, no more bike rides James!
It was written before the game that the returning Hugo Rodallega would score for the visitors, he didn’t let us down. A disappointing game from the Latics perspective but still enough to suggest that with a bit of form we will get the results needed to climb up the league
After the match both the managers spoke to the media, let’s take a look at what they had to say:
Latics boss Roberto Martinez – We didn`t start well enough; on the ball we were slow, a bit pedestrian and couldn`t find that forward pass that always seemed to be there.
‘From there onwards we made things complicated for ourselves, conceding a first-half goal at a crucial time.
‘If we want to get positive results we need more concentration and intensity in defence when we’re on top of the game – we can’t afford to be hurt so much on a counter-attack.
‘We created very good opportunities throughout the game that we just couldn’t take until it was too late in the day, for some reason Fulham continue to be an opposition we can’t take a positive result from.’
‘Ryo and Callum came off the bench and had a contagious effect on the team, showing a positive momentum and helping to get a late goal.
‘It was disappointing not to have Franco available for the game. We thought he could shrug off a calf injury picked up after that tackle from Danny Welbeck last weekend at Old Trafford, but he picked up another slight knock in training which ruled him out.
‘James is still recovering from his back injury and slowly he’s getting back to his full physical fitness by working very hard. We’ve got a big squad and all the players need opportunities to play and opportunities to rest also.’
Fulham boss Martin Jol – ‘It is nice to get three points on the board. They are a difficult team. It was pleasing to see us taking the initiative.
‘We needed that [second] goal as they scored in added time. You can’t complain because they are a good football team, they deserved a goal too.
‘One of the reasons that I played him [Rodallega] was because it was against his former team and he had extra motivation to score against his old club.’
Latics and Proud
Fancy writing an article about the Latics? Why not get in touch, we are always looking for new contributors, after all we are all Latics fans here and want to get the Latics message to the world, so if you have a favourite match or Latics memory get it jotted down, or whatever you want to say put it into an email and send it to us here at Vital Wigan
To get your article published just click here and we will put it onto the site
