Shaun’s still got Lat of faith in battlers

SHAUN MALONEY insists his battling Wigan side believe they can beat the drop after they earned a point to lift themselves off the foot of the table.

The draw with Birmingham leaves Latics six points from safety with 12 games remaining.

But Maloney, who has only lost once in his first six games in charge, insists they cannot rely on those around them to falter if they are to stay up.

He said: “I don’t spend much energy on what the teams around us do. We have to prepare to win every game, I think that’s what we saw today.

“The players didn’t stop believing that they could win and I have to give them that confidence again on Tuesday.”

It was Blues who took the lead when Christ Tiehi clumsily brought down Juninho Bacuna on the edge of the box.

Bacuna took the resulting free-kick, curling it over the wall and past Ben Amos.

The hosts equalised when James Mcclean whipped in a ball from the left, hitting the feet of Ashley Fletcher who coolly slotted past John Ruddy. Birmingham nearly hit straight back, Bacuna dancing his way into the box only to be brought down by Ryan Nyambe.

But Scott Hogan rattled the crossbar with the resulting penalty, leaving John Eustace to take his side back to the Midlands with a point.

Eustace said: “I’m disappointed we never won the game. We hit the post a couple of times and missed a penalty. I don’t need to say anything to Scott about it. He’s disappointed. He was fantastic and worked his socks off.”

WIGAN: Amos 6; Hughes 7, Whatmough 7, Rekik 6 (Pearce (58) 6); Nyambe 5, Tiehi 5 (Keane (46) 6), Power 8, Mcclean 7; Sinani 7 (Magennis (85) 5), Aasgaard 6, Fletcher 6 BIRMINGHAM: Ruddy 6; Long 6, Dean 6, Trusty 6; Colin 6, Chong 7 (Hannibal (69) 6), Bacuna 9, Chang 6, Graham 7 (Roberts (89) 5); Hogan 6 (Khadra (73) 6), Jutkiewicz 6 STAR MAN: Juninho Bacuna – Set the tone for his performance early on by netting a sublime free-kick and remained superb throughout. REF: Stephen Martin 6