Steve Bruce
Individually and collectively we never really got started and I think it was summed up when in the first three minutes Kirkland has got injured. I think all through the game that everyone could see that he was not 100%.
Everything just seemed to go against us, although we got a lifeline in the form of a penalty and we stuck that away and I would have expected us to kick on but we had all sorts of problems with their midfield players.
Our strength in the last few weeks has been in defence but unfortunately it has not been good enough today. I could not pick an individual who has lived up to the performance that they have produced of late.
Mark Hughes
I thought we were excellent, a lot of big performances. We got ourselves in a good position 1-0 up and were quite comfortable.
There was little bit of a mix up on the throw in and Heskey got a clean run through. Chris tried to get back, put a hand on his shoulder and we felt he (Heskey) went down a bit too easily.
In the circumstances you usually expect a penalty to be given and that was the case. But the punishment did not fit the crime; they scored the penalty, it is 1-0 and you are down to 10 men but we regrouped and changed the shape.
It was a key game for us. We had games against Fulham (1-1) and West Ham (2-1 defeat) where we had slipped up and that was disappointing. Today it was really important we won and I said beforehand the players had to understand the significance of te game and as a consequence we got a really good performance.
The TableLatest match Sunday,
23rd March 2008Pld Home Away Overall Pts GD W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A 1 Manchester United 31 14 1 1 37 5 9 3 3 27 10 23 4 4 64 15 73 +49 2 Arsenal 30 12 4 0 33 10 7 6 1 25 12 19 10 1 58 22 67 +36 3 Chelsea 30 9 5 0 29 9 10 3 3 24 13 19 8 3 53 22 65 +31 4 Liverpool 31 9 6 1 38 12 7 5 3 17 12 16 11 4 55 24 59 +31 5 Everton 31 9 3 3 28 13 8 3 5 20 13 17 6 8 48 26 57 +22 6 Portsmouth 31 6 7 2 22 12 8 1 7 22 21 14 8 9 44 33 50 +11 7 Aston Villa 31 8 3 5 25 19 5 7 3 27 21 13 10 8 52 40 49 +12 8 Blackburn Rovers 31 7 5 4 21 16 6 5 4 21 22 13 10 8 42 38 49 +4 9 Manchester City 31 10 4 2 23 14 3 6 6 13 20 13 10 8 36 34 49 +2 10 West Ham United 31 6 5 4 18 18 6 3 7 16 19 12 8 11 34 37 44 -3 11 Tottenham Hotspur 31 8 3 4 43 26 2 6 8 17 25 10 9 12 60 51 39 +9 12 Middlesbrough 31 5 4 6 15 19 3 6 7 13 25 8 10 13 28 44 34 -16 13 Newcastle United 31 6 5 5 20 24 2 3 10 13 33 8 8 15 33 57 32 -24 14 Wigan Athletic 31 7 3 5 18 14 1 4 11 10 31 8 7 16 28 45 31 -17 15 Reading 31 8 1 7 19 22 1 3 11 18 36 9 4 18 37 58 31 -21 16 Sunderland 31 7 3 5 17 15 1 3 12 10 33 8 6 17 27 48 30 -21 17 Birmingham City 31 4 6 5 20 18 2 3 11 15 30 6 9 16 35 48 27 -13 18 Bolton Wanderers 31 5 5 6 18 15 1 3 11 10 30 6 8 17 28 45 26 -17 19 Fulham 31 4 5 7 19 26 0 6 9 8 25 4 11 16 27 51 23 -24 20 Derby County 31 1 4 10 8 25 0 3 13 6 40 1 7 23 14 65 10 -51
Next Game
Next up for the Latics is a difficult trip to Portsmouth on Saturday. The Latics wil have to manage without the injured Edman and suspended Koumas, whilst Kirkland also faces a race for fitness.