Source: Eurosport
Watson refusing to think of Europe
Ben Watson insists European football has not been mentioned in Wigan's dressing room despite Sunday's win over Hull putting them seventh.Latics are in pole position after regaining seventh spot, which is likely to be the final spot to get into the revamped Europa League.However, West Ham, Fulham, Manchester City and Tottenham are also all in with a realistic chance and Watson says the squad can not afford to be distracted by dreams of continental competition - especially as there are some tough matches to come."The club is in a fantastic position seventh in the league with eight games to go, you can't ask for much more than that," he said."But we are not thinking of Europe, it has not been mentioned. The main thing was to stay in the league and now we take it one game at a time."The last two games (victories against Sunderland and Hull) were massive. We thought if we could get maximum points out of them it would put a gap between us and the relegation zone and that is what we have done."Our next two games are Everton and Arsenal. No disrespect to Sunderland or Hull but it is going to be tougher to get points off them."Steve Bruce hopes the prospect of European football will provide the necessary incentive to keep his players firing on all cylinders until the end of the campaign.The Latics boss has admitted he does not have a squad strong enough to compete in Europe and that Premier League survival will always be the priority every season.However, now his side have reached 41 points Bruce wants the squad to push on to see if they can qualify for Europe for the first time in the club's history, especially as three of their final four fixtures are West Brom, Stoke and Portsmouth"
To even be there (in seventh) with eight games to go is terrific," he said."The players have a bit of a buzz about them. It means something to them to be seventh."It is absolutely possible and my job is to make sure they are focused."We have a few of the bottom teams (they also have to go to Blackburn and host Bolton) to play - although we also have Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United.
"The other five are teams who are going to be tough but are in and around the bottom half of the table."Bruce is awaiting the results of scans on Charles N'Zogbia after the midfielder limped off just before half-time with a knee injury sustained in a collision with Hull defender Kamil Zayatte.
"We're obviously worried about Charles - his exit at half-time affected our style of play," he added."The lad got an impact blow on his knee. He'll have scans and X-rays in the next 24 or 48 hours once everything has settled down."Hopefully it's not too serious. Charles had started showing flashes of why we brought him here in the first place."He is a dribbler - there aren't too many of those about in this country, and he can give you that bit of spark."
