Kirkland wants tighter defence

Kirkland: Fed up with conceding

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Chris Kirkland has urged Wigan's back four to tighten up after having to pick the ball out of the net eight times in his last two games.

The England hopeful endured a miserable weekend as Wigan went ahead against Arsenal before going down 4-1, while the week before they were thumped 4-0 at Everton.

With no game for the best part of a fortnight Kirkland is hopeful things can be put right on the training ground to enable a strong finish to the campaign.

Wigan were due to face Manchester United this weekend but the champions' FA Cup semi-final appearance means their next game is against Bolton on 2nd May.

Form dipped

"We haven't switched off because we're safe and the season is nearly over," he told the Evening Post.

"Looking at it from my point of view, I want the team to get as many points as we can and have a great end to the season.

"I want it to be one of my best seasons in my career, and I'm sure the other players feel exactly the same way.

"The gaffer and coaching staff will be making sure we don't drift in these remaining matches. They'll be working us hard in training over the next couple of weeks. Our form has just dipped in the last couple of games - we've conceded four goals in each of them, which isn't nice.

Clean sheets

"We need to get back to keeping clean sheets - it's because of our good defensive record that we're well placed in the table.

"The Arsenal defeat was frustrating because we did superbly for 60 minutes then caved in a little bit.

"What we don't want is a bad end to the season where we just fade away. That could easily carry on into next season.

"If we can pick up some results in these last six games we'll be stronger going into next season rather than having some kind of hangover."