Martinez: Latics will stop the rot

WIGAN’S great escape last season has given manager Roberto Martinez confidence that they can pull themselves out of their current horrendous run of form.

Yesterday’s 2-0 defeat by Fulham made it eight losses in-a-row for the Latics, seven of them in the Barclays Premier League.

They now sit bottom of the table having failed to pick up a single point in either September or October.

But Martinez is not about to start panicking just yet.

The Spaniard said: “October has been a shocking month for us. I could go from things on the training ground, to suspensions, to injuries, to bad decisions, to hitting the post, and I’m delighted it’s the last game in October.

“But the experience that we had last season really prepared us for anything in football. We are a young group but I think we’re ready.

“The players need to forget about winning games, they just need to focus on improving individually.”

“We need to see the overall aim. We need to get 40 points, we’ve got five so we need 35. With the amount of games there are left, there is not a situation where you have to win the next two.”

Luck was certainly not on Wigan’s side yesterday as they dominated proceedings at the DW Stadium but could not find the net, with Victor Moses and Maynor Figueroa both hitting the woodwork.

Fulham hit their opponents on the break in the 41st minute to open the scoring through Clint Dempsey before Moussa Dembele wrapped up the points four minutes from time.

It was a first away win of the season for the Cottagers and only their second victory of a campaign in which, like Wigan, they have struggled to turn good play into points.

Manager Martin Jol said: “Everybody was waiting for a win. If your home record is great you don’t have to win all your away games but we played against Wolves and against Newcastle and I felt we were a bit unfortunate, but we didn’t score.

“We scored one goal when we were 2-0 down against Newcastle, so it was not enough. We had a cushion with the goal (yesterday), and that is what you need.”

There was extra reason for Dempsey to celebrate, who equalled former team-mate Brian McBride’s record of most goals scored by an American in the Premier League with 36.

“The funny thing is we’ve played some good football in the last few weeks and not got the results, whereas this time we may not have played our best but we got the points. It’s crazy how it works sometimes,” offered Dempsey.

“Hopefully we can take some confidence from grinding out a result and keeping a clean sheet. Now we’ve got to push on.”

Jol, meanwhile, praised Belgian striker Dembele after he netted his first goal of the season.

“He is so gifted,” said Jol. ” The next step is for him to score goals. He has all the talent in the world.”