Martinez rues missed opportunities

Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez feels his team were unfortunate not to take all three points from their trip to Norwich on Sunday.

Martinez’s side trailed to a Wes Hoolahan goal in the ninth minute of the match at Carrow Road, with Victor Moses levelling for the visitors on 67 minutes.

Wigan passed up several opportunities to snatch a winner late on, and the draw was not enough to lift them off the foot of the English Premier League table.

“You have seen today why we are in the position we are in, because we cannot really show that little bit of composure or have that bit of luck in front of goal,” Martinez said.

“We created enough chances to win and grew into the game.”

“After giving away the early goal, I felt we were really strong, we kept the ball well, and created numerous chances.”

“Clearly it was a good performance for us, but only one point to show and that is what we have to rectify from now until the end.”

Wigan have managed just one victory from their past 13 matches in the Premier League, but Martinez is confident his team – only two points adrift of safety – still have a chance of staying up.

“The belief is always there,” he said.

“From the outside the first team to go down is always Wigan. That has never affected us and you learn to live with that.”

“We are bottom of the league, but we don’t play like a team at the bottom of the league. That makes me very proud and there are 30 points still to play for.”

Norwich manager Paul Lambert said his players struggled in the knowledge they were favourites to win at home against the competition’s bottom team.

“It was a tough game, but it was always going to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest, because of the expectancy,” he said.

“We could have lost it at the end, so it is another point for us to be safe.”

“I have always thought that if you can’t win it, don’t lose it. We showed great resilience and we had to.”

“We could have won it at the end with (Steve) Morison’s header, but I will take a point.”