Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez felt his troops were worthy of a point after suffering a late 2-1 defeat to Fulham.
Latics boss frustrated by late defeat at the Cottage
Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez felt his troops were worthy of a point after suffering a late 2-1 defeat to Fulham.
Philippe Senderos headed home an 89th-minute winner after Pavel Pogrebnyak cancelled out Emmerson Boyce's second-half opener.
The Latics have been on fire recently courtesy of wins over Manchester United and Arsenal and Martinez feels the big games have taken their toll.
However, Wigan gave as good as they got at Craven Cottage and the Spanish tactician was frustrated his side conceded a late winner in west London.
Deserved
"It is hard to take because I felt the performance deserved a draw," he told
Sky Sports. "It's one of those games that I thought was one game too many.
"It's been a really demanding period for us. We've played three really physical games and today probably we couldn't be at our best.
"Even then I felt that we did enough to perform well and trying to get that opening goal is always the hardest thing to do away from home.
"Unfortunately we conceded straight after and that gave a little bit of momentum to Fulham. I couldn't see the scoreline to be anything different than a draw.
"With the set-play late on we got really punished and today we feel as though we didn't get what we deserved. Conceding that late, late goal is really frustrating.
"That happens in football. We need to regroup quickly and get ready for Saturday.
Reward
"The players have had to make a massive, massive effort in the last four games. Today probably that reward we deserve wasn't there.
"It's clear today we couldn't be our normal selves, in terms of energy as you would expect, but even then we controlled the game in spells."
The loss leaves Wigan on 34 points, three clear of third-from-bottom Blackburn, and Martinez insists there is still plenty of work to do in their remaining four outings.
"We haven't got enough points yet," he continued. "That means we need to focus on ourselves and to concentrate on our performances and make sure we're as good as we can."
