MOYESIE LINE-UP NOT PREMIER LEAGUE? YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH
Manager’s claims he only fielded fringe stars is mocked by Latics and fans
DAVID MOYES was shocked after West Ham’s defeat to League One Wigan.
Not because his Premier League side had lost to a team 33 places below them, rather why so many people were surprised by the result.
Moyes insisted this was not a genuine upset because his makeshift side could not be considered a Premier League team because he was without 10 injured players.
“People shouldn’t be maybe that surprised because if you look at the team we played, I don’t think our team is necessarily a Premier League team,” he tried to argue.
“I think we had a scattering of Premier League players. Then we had young players, who are on their way to trying to become good footballers. Maybe some of them will go on to be top players, but now it’s not the case.”
Nice try Moyesie, but a side containing
England goalkeeper
Joe Hart, Pablo
Zabaleta, Angelo
Ogbonna, Aaron
Cresswell and Javier Hernandez is a Premier League team, and this was a proper upset. Wigan certainly weren’t swallowing Moyes’ attempts to downplay this result.
Defender Chey Dunkley, who helped mush the ‘Little Pea’, was adamant no shine should be taken off their win.
“They were missing big players like Carroll, Lanzini, Arnautovic and Noble, but I still reckon they put out a strong side,” said the centre-half.
“They still had a few experienced players and are a Premier League side. You still had players like Hernandez and Joe Hart playing.
“We just had to make sure we were professional and we were.”
Judging by their chants of, “We want our money back,” West Ham’s travelling support would not have agreed with Moyes’ attempts to dismiss this embarrassment.
They were abject and rather than hide behind injuries, Moyes should have acknowledged his side were inferior all over the park to Paul Cook’s (below) hungry side. The League One leaders created more chances, had more possession and made this win look easy. They were in control through Will Grigg’s opener even before Arthur Masuaku was sent off for spitting at Nick
Powell on 49 minutes.
His red card ended the tie as a contest and
Grigg added a second from the spot.
It is only the fourth time
Wigan have made it past the fourth round and the club may have to make room on their wall of fame inside the DW Stadium to celebrate this season’s achievements.
“Yeah, the Cup is special in the club’s history and it’s nice to see reminders of the win in 2013 on the wall,” said Dunkley.
“It would be good to go on a board for what we’ve done and it’s a great feeling to beat two Premier League teams in the Cup. We’re also top of League One, but we know we haven’t done anything yet.
“But our focus now is the Tuesday league game against Rochdale. We have to be professional whether it’s Rochdale, West Ham or Bournemouth.”
An attitude lacking in West Ham at the DW Stadium.