GILKS IS ALREADY FEELING AT HOME
Keeper’s spot-kick save key for Latics
WIGAN boss Warren Joyce knows his side’s future is in their own hands after a hard-earned point against Preston left them two points adrift in the Championship drop zone.
Home debutant Matt Gilks’ penalty save from Jordan Hugill was enough to preserve the Latics’ clean sheet against North End in a game of few chances.
Joyce praised former Blackpool stopper Gilks for his instant impact at the club and insisted his side are doing all they can to stay up at the first attempt.
“You can’t do anything about other results, we can only be concerned about ourselves,” said Joyce.
“We're aiming to win every game. QPR on Tuesday is just another game that we’ll start preparing for straight away, and it’ll be no different from others.
“Obviously we always want three points from every game, but you can’t do anything about other teams. We couldn’t do more today than we did to try to win the game, but it was just that little bit of quality around the box.
“That’s why players are paid the fortunes they are. It was the lack of that last pass or shot, but certainly not through a lack of effort or trying to win the game.
“It’s just a hard-fought derby game with a good atmosphere.
“It was a good save from Matt, but I thought it was a harsh penalty and it could’ve been a free-kick for us. I thought the foul on Omar Bogle was a stonewall penalty too.
“We tried to get Gilks at the start of the window and he fits in with the type of person we want at the club. He’s a good pro and a good leader.”
Bogle undid his early good work when he fouled Callum Robinson in the Wigan box on nine minutes.
But Gilks was the hero as he saved Hugill’s penalty to his left, and then clung on to the striker’s scuffed rebound.
Sam Morsy came close when his speculative effort on 40 minutes was deflected wide by Preston skipper Tom Clarke, while minutes before the interval Bogle had strong claims for a penalty against Paul Huntington waved away by the referee.
Bogle thought he was in to score on 76 minutes, but Greg Cunningham made an outstanding interception to keep the scores level.
North End boss Simon Grayson believes his side were worth three points, but agreed the missed penalty was crucial to not winning.
He said: “It’s a little bit of an opportunity missed there as we were probably the team that looked most likely to score in the game.
“We need to give Wigan a lot of credit as they worked very hard – they pressed and worked us, and we didn't have that quality in the final third that we have been producing in the last few games.
“The missed penalty didn’t help us, obviously. We’ve hardly had a penalty this year but Jordan has always been on them.
“He’s been practising them in training this week and he was confident in what he was going to do.
“But if you’d given me seven points last Saturday, then we would have been more than delighted.
“Our fans were brilliant and it is a bit disappointing we could not give them the bragging rights for them to go home with.”