Martinez lauds Wigan mettle

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez praised his side’s character after they fought back from an early deficit to draw 2-2 at West Bromwich Albion.

After conceding at the five-minute mark to Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie, Wigan struck back with goals to Charles N’Zogbia and Ben Watson before Marc-Antoine Fortune equalised with 10 minutes remaining to set up a thrilling finale.

Martinez said that while he was disappointed not to be heading home with all three points, which would have lifted his side out of the relegation zone, he was happy with his players’ response to the early setback.

“West Brom started very well the first five minutes, they got a great goal and then after that the hardest thing is to get on level terms and get in front on the score line,” Martinez told Sky Sports.

“We had two great opportunities to score the third goal and the game would have been over. We couldn’t keep the ball as well as we did in the first half.”

“I felt that we controlled the game once we conceded the goal and if we’d scored the third it would have been three points well deserved in my opinion.”

“You come away from home you go 1-0 down, you need to show a lot of character and good football to score two goals.”

“Unfortunately that little lack of concentration it cost us and it’s been a sign of the season, but we will carry on with the same attitude.”

West Brom manager Roberto Di Matteo also felt his side were unlucky not to come away with the win, and bemoaned what he felt was some poor officiating from the referee.

“We hit the post twice and had some good chances, the keeper made some great saves as well. We tried until the end and it’s a bit unlucky for us,” Di Matteo said.

“We made a few changes and the new players really sparked a late rally for us, we got back into the game and we pressed them and put some pressure on.”

“It’s just a shame they scored two quality goals from free-kicks.”

“There was a handball and then there was a foul on (Steven) Reid in the box. I’m just disappointed that with the key decisions we are not getting them.”