Wigan Athletic | News | Latics News | Latics News | BLACK PRAISES TEAM PERFORMANCE

BLACK PRAISES TEAM PERFORMANCE

Posted on: Mon 02 Mar 2009

'Everyone stuck to their jobs' explains Assistant

By Paul Chialton

Eric Black explained that Wigan can be proud of their performance at Stamford Bridge after a magnificent display ended in heartache:

"I thought we played exceptionally well today, we were outstanding.

"We had a plan which we went through during the week and it seemed to work very well.

"The players stuck to their jobs and were unbelievably disciplined. When we got hold of the ball there was real belief that we could do something and it created Chelsea a lot of problems.

"It's just unfortunate that the breaks we did get, especially early on, didn't come to anything because they could have changed the face of the whole game.

"The result's hard take because with two minutes to go you're buoyant thinking you've performed extremely well and got a result, only to go away with nothing.

"But, on a positive note, there were some great individual performances. I thought Amr Zaki looked back to his usual best and the midfield pair did well too.

"Titus Bramble was absolutely magnificent which he has been for quite a while now.

"It's great for us to come here and perform in the manner we have. We worked exceptionally hard and were extremely disciplined, showing huge belief and using the ball with bravery to go forward."

Wigan now prepare to face West Ham on Wednesday, an ideal opportunity to keep momentum going, and Black anticipates a real challenge against Gianfranco Zola's men:

"West Ham will be a totally different game. We weren't expected to do much here but we had a go and were very unlucky.

"We might have to change one or two things and maybe we'll have a bigger squad to choose from which may give the manager a few headaches, because there were some excellent performances out there today.

"I can guarantee that we'll give West Ham a real game on Wednesday."