Martinez confident team-spirit will pull through and turn things round
Roberto Martinez explained how his team deserved a lot more from their encounter with Everton, but will look to respond in the right way over the coming weeks.
Latics were undone again by a set-piece, this time Tim Cahill converted a late corner to steal the win, and the gaffer said that whilst the players will work hard to amend the situation, it's important to focus on the manner of their performance, not the final result.
"The players don't deserve the feeling they have right now, from the first minute to the last we tried to dictate the play, create chances and in the first-half I think we created enough to deserve a lead," said Martinez.
"In the end we got ourselves in a situation where we couldn't defend a corner, a set-piece, and that's really disappointing and hard to take.
"Now we all have to be together in order to react in the right manner and try to look through the result. Yes it was a blow not to get anything from the game but the performance was good enough to win the game.
"It was the same problem from Wednesday and not being able to defend from a set-piece that let us down. We have to improve in that department, we can't leave ourselves with mountains to climb in every game, we have to be solid enough to defend from every set-play.
"It comes down to individual jobs, we use a mix of zonal and man-marking systems from set-pieces, and when you have your own job to look after a man it's disappointing when it goes wrong.
"But we'll continue to work on it because to concede three goals in two games from set-pieces makes life very difficult, when you're trying to win football games."
This was Everton's eight game unbeaten, but were it not for some missed opportunities in both halves Martinez could well have been celebrating three points tonight:
"Everton are on a good run at the moment and I think we did well to stop them playing, impose ourselves on the game and create chances that should have led to goals. But to end up with nothing is a tough blow to take.
"We have to try and find the confidence in front of goal that we're missing and put in the performances to get the results.
"It's not a moment to look at results, it's a time to look at the performance. If one team deserved the win today it was Wigan Athletic, we took command of the game and got into some very good positions.
"If you don't take those opportunities however you at least need to make sure you keep a clean-sheet.
"We need to be strong now, it will be a real test of character to respond to this but we'll react in the right manner on Tuesday.
"The players have great pride in what they're doing and are proud to be Wigan Athletic players. The dressing room has been through this before, there are great characters in there and we'll look to put things right over the next few games."
