BOSS LEFT DEFLATED AFTER VALIANT PERFORMANCE

By Paul Chialton

Steve Bruce struggled to hide his disappointment after Saturday's game at Anfield, but again witnessed a performance full of positives.

Many will view Antonio Valencia's sending off as the turning point of the game with Latics 2-1 up at the time and sustaining Liverpool's pressure well.

But a yellow card for encroachment on a free-kick and another for a tackle in which Bruce claims Valencia won the ball left the Latics boss frustrated at the final whistle;

"Their boy (Alonso) takes the free-kick and he (Valencia) breaks from the wall, takes it away, and got booked for it. So he's got that decision wrong," Bruce said.

"The other one is a tackle which is harsh too because he definitely played the ball.

"Yes we could have done better with 10min to go but we had a lot of tired bodies after the international break.But we did feel absolutely harshly treated."

It wouldn't be fair on the team to suggest that the referee's decisions were the main talking point of the game, because despite not coming away from Anfield with any points Wigan were the better side in this contest for long periods and fully deserved to go into half-time 2-1 up, with Amr Zaki again giving a sterling performance and Daniel de Ridder also impressing the boss;

"Zaki was absolutely scary.

"He gave a wonderful performance, and when you produce a performance like that the last thing you want is to be on the losing team.

"I thought de Ridder, for his first real start, was terrific. He gave a really good performance and I was pleased with him.

"The way we played, the way we went about it, I thought we were excellent for 70min."

But with fatigue creeping in and being forced to finish the game with 10 men the objective of holding out for a result agonisingly eluded the team;

"It was always in the back of my mind, I knew we would tire.

"Figueroa didn't have the strength to kick it bless him. But he just got off a plane yesterday morning (Friday).

"So I knew we were going to tire and that's when you need 11 men, but as I said the referee's decision for me changed the whole course of the game."