Paul Cook delighted with Wigan’s position following Walsall win

Posted Thursday, March 22, 2018 by PA

Wigan boss Paul Cook says he would not swap positions with any of his promotion rivals after seeing his side cruise to a 3-0 victory at Walsall.

The Latics bounced back from their FA Cup quarter-final exit to Southampton in style as three goals in nine first-half minutes from Michael Jacobs, Jay Fulton and Chey Dunkley downed the struggling Saddlers.

The win took Wigan within a point of the automatic promotion spots and they have two games in hand over both of the top two – Blackburn and Shrewsbury.

Cook said: “I wouldn’t swap our position with anyone. We’ve always had it in our own hands.

“The FA Cup run has taken it out of our hands in terms of points on the board and teams like Blackburn have stolen a march on us by having an outstanding run.

“But if we win our games in hand, we will be in a very strong position.

“There’s other teams having outstanding seasons and it looks like somebody is going to end up disappointed despite having a lot of points and that’s the nature of football.

“To date, we haven’t achieved anything, like everybody else in the league. We’ve got 11 games to go and come the end of the season, what will be will be.

“After the cup tie on Sunday, to come here tonight and put such a strong performance in against a very willing Walsall team was great. I thought our level of professionalism was really good.”

New Walsall boss Dean Keates, who replaced the sacked Jon Whitney last week, watched from the stand as his side remained just four points above the relegation zone.

Assistant boss Ian Sharps took charge and rued the 10-minute first-half spell that decided the game.

Sharps said: “In the first half-hour we felt in the game. We had a foothold. But for 15 minutes things went to pot. When you are down there, you can’t afford to do it.

“We’ve looked better in the second half but obviously we know Wigan have probably dropped it down a gear so we are not kidding ourselves.

“The lads showed a bit of character. That’s what we need over the next eight games.

“We need to show character, we need to show strength. We need to have a bit of steel about us which wasn’t there for 15 minutes today.

“The only priority now is making sure we are in this division next year. All season we have been out of the bottom four and we don’t intend to go in there now.

“We’ve conceded too many goals in the last three games – eight goals. That’s not going to win you football matches, so we have to keep more clean sheets.”