Jones keen to take his chance

Wigan midfielder David Jones is keen to take advantage of injuries to Ben Watson and James McArthur by cementing his place in the first team.

The former Wolves man started his second consecutive game of the season in central midfield against Manchester City on Wednesday.

Jones believes there is more to come from him after starting the season on the sidelines.

“It has been nice to get consecutive starts in the middle and with more games I think my game can improve more,” he told the club’s website.

“I’m enjoying stepping in and hopefully my performances can help me to get even more games.”

The 28-year-old was happy with his side’s performance in the 2-0 loss to the champions, but believes they could have achieved even more if they were braver.

“Up until their first goal we looked comfortable and prevented them from having any clear goalscoring opportunities and we did well to limit them,” Jones said.

“Off the ball I thought we were superb for most of the game but, we could have done with a little more confidence and belief when we had the ball.

“We expect ourselves to be calm on the ball and it was difficult against such a top quality team but, I think we played the same way as we did against Reading and tried to move the ball quickly but accurately.

“There was a pattern of us hitting them on the counter-attack by breaking play up in the middle as they came forward, rather than from the edge of our own area like counter-attacks usually happen in football.

“We could have done more to hurt them and reflecting on the flow of the game, we had some good chances to throw players forward.

“We have to keep performing the way we have in the last two games, especially with such a busy period of games over Christmas and we’ve got a very good game to look forward to on Monday against Newcastle United.”