Gaffer pleased with 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur

Wigan's draw with Tottenham helped increment the points total to 36, and that lifted the club in the Barclays Premier League to 13th position.

Dimitar Berbatov scored after six minutes after volleying Aaron Lennon's cross, but Emile Heskey equalised in the twelth minute himself as he converted Kevin Kilbane's cross.

Both Fulham and Reading both lost, whilst Bolton won away at Middlesbrough, but Bruce says a victory at Reading is all there is standing between Latics and top flight consolidation.

In the post match conference the manager said, "Bolton's result has given them a lifeline but the position is that we have gone up two places so it is in our hands to beat Reading next week and if we beat them then we are safe. We couldn't ask for anything better than that really with three games left to play.

The Latics boss admitted that he thought that the 1-1 result reflected the evenly matched performance. The boss said, "I was pleased with a point because I thought Tottenham, particularly in the first half hour and Berbatov in particular was excellent and it just shows what a good player he is because he can still play on a bad pitch. He caused us all sorts of problems. Spurs were very, very good especially in the forward areas."

Wigan had the best chance in the second half through Marcus Bent, but the hit man struck the woodwork.

Bruce continued, "We changed things a little bit in the second half and [Marcus] Bent was a couple of inches away from giving us a winning goal. It was a wonderful pass from Palacios and he took it well, then you are thinking hit the target, but unfortunately it was a fine margin."

Latics were forced to withdraw both Heskey and Bent later in the second half after they picked up injuries but Bruce revealed he was not too concerned ahead of next week's visit of Reading.

"Marcus [Bent] has a cut and we think he will be alright and Emile [Heskey] has got a slight hamstring strain and we think he will be OK too. We hope they will be fine next week."

Wigan World subscribers can watch the whole of the post match interview with Steve Bruce on Wigan World.