Cook warns rivals his Latics will fight in ‘brutal’ league
WIGAN Athletic manager Paul Cook has warned the rest of the Championship’s struggling sides including Huddersfield Town - that he believes his team will be back to winning way soon after some positive recent performances.
The Latics, second-bottom in the table, are now 10 games without a win following their 1-1 draw with Danny Cowley’s Terriers on Saturday afternoon, and are yet to beat any of other sides in the bottom six.
But as Cowley pointed out on Thursday afternoon, Wigan have been on the wrong end of a lot of tight games recently, including a 1-1 draw against table-topping West Bromwich Albion last Wednesday evening in a game they dominated, and Cook believes that suggests results will start coming to Wigan soon.
Town are currently four points clear of the drop zone in 19th on 22 points, with Middlesbrough on 21 points, Luton on 20, Stoke and Wigan on 18, and Barnsley on 16.
Cook said: “It’s a tough league, it’s there for everyone to see. It’s the way football is today.
“We’re in a tough division. We’ve just played Huddersfield, who are now [four] points above us, we’ve just played Middlesbrough who are three points above us... it’s tough.
“So if we’re having the problems and we’ve got to try and get better, so have the other teams in those areas.
“I think the response from the players has been very, very good in these two games, that’s for sure.”
He added: “We’re playing against good teams. These are strong teams, out of the Premier League, with strong squads, [Juninho] Bacuna...you know, these are top, top players that we’re playing against, and I think our lads are doing OK at the minute.
“You’ve only got to look at the Charlton [vs Hull] game on Friday night.
“Charlton have done nothing wrong but they concede an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
“That’s brutal! Because those lads feel like they’ve done something wrong and the reality is they haven’t.
“It can be a cruel game, and we’ll be back to winning ways if we keep playing the way we are.
“I’m pleased that we’ve actually seen games out without losing but the problem is now that we’ve got to make sure we get more points so we can stay up, and I believe we’re playing well at minute in terms of performance.”
It’s a tough league, it’s there for everyone to see. It’s the way
football is today