The back four were back to their old stingy selves

Last updated : 29 December 2004 By Tony Scholes

Wigan boss Paul Jewell seems to have lost the plot completely and thought his side were much the better of the two teams despite admitting they had hardly threatened us.


“As far as football is concerned I thought we were by far the better team but even though we outplayed Burnley we didn’t get three points,” said Jewell after the game.

“I thought the goal they scored was the only real chance they had in the game. Other than that we played well between the two boxes but lacked the cutting edge we needed to trouble their keeper. For all the possession we had we didn’t have enough chances.

“We played well up to the box and their goalkeeper hasn’t really had too many saves to make, yet possession wise, we dominated the game.

“We’ve got to play a lot of games in a short space of time, maybe Burnley had an advantage with their game called off on Boxing Day, but I thought the lads played well but we lacked the killer instinct.

“We changed our system a little but, we passed the ball well, but we just did not have the cutting edge.”

Steve Cotterill summed it all up with his first words when he said, “I thought we were fantastic today.”

I’m sure after the goings on in recent weeks and feeling the need to leave out his captain Robbie Blake this was a sweeter than usual win for Steve.

“Right from the start we had a bite in our tackle and there was something about us. It was a great performance from the boys,” he added.

“You’ve got to work hard in football. All of the teams who win leagues and cups work hard and that is the basis for success.”

Commenting on the system with just one forward he said, “A lot is made of one man up front but all the midfielders apart from one have licence to get up there. They took turns today and I thought it was a good all round performance.

“The back four in particular were excellent and back to their old stingy selves and that meant Brian only had long range shots to deal with, and he dealt with them well.

“The whole team ethic was magnificent and you need that to succeed at any level.”