Maloney welcomes vital points

Wigan attacker Shaun Maloney hailed his side’s 2-1 win over Newcastle as a ‘massive three points’ on Sunday.

Arouna Kone scored an injury-time winner for the home side after Davide Santon cancelled out Jean Beasejour’s first-half strike at DW Stadium.

The win means Wigan stay in 18th position, but are only three points behind Aston Villa with a game in hand.

Although Roberto Martinez’s side are disappointed to be battling relegation again, they can get themselves out of it according to Maloney.

“It was just a huge effort from us to try and go and get the winner and we were a bit fortunate in the end, but that’s a massive three points for us,” Maloney told Sky Sports.

Wigan left it late to survive relegation in 2011 with a win at Stoke City on the last day of the season, and when asked whether his side could pull off the great escape again, Maloney says it is up to his team-mates to pull themselves out of the drop zone.

He said: “We hope so. It’s disappointing that we’re in this position again, but we found ourselves in it and it’s up to us to get ourselves out of it.”