Wigan V West Ham at The DW Stadium : Match Preview

27 October 2012 07:56
Wigan V West Ham - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.

Martinez hopes for change of luck for Latics Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is hoping his side's performances will soon be rewarded with the points tally they deserve, starting against West Ham. After a promising start to the season where they picked up four points from three games, the Latics have managed just a single point from the five games since.

Their latest disappointment came last weekend when they were beaten 2-1 by Martinez's former club Swansea, with the added frustration for the Spaniard of seeing what would have been an equaliser from Arouna Kone disallowed for a debatable offside.

That followed on from Wigan conceding a late equaliser to draw with Everton in a match they led twice, and Martinez hopes tomorrow's match will not be the same story again. He said: "We're really looking forward to playing at home, and the next game for us is vitally important, to be able to get all the good things together and to start getting the results we deserve. "Against Swansea we were a little bit disappointed. We worked really hard and you're not going to get many teams who go there and make more passes than the home team.

"But we had a period where we conceded two soft goals and then you're giving yourself a very difficult task. But the reaction was very, very good. "That's the challenge - reflecting points in the good work the players are doing on the pitch, and that's where we are. We're not going to look away from the responsibility to try to correct that as quickly as we can. "But I'm very excited, I'm very pleased with the signs we've shown so far and it's time to get a win and develop that into a very good season."

Martinez could be without Japanese winger Ryo Miyaichi as he is struggling with a slight groin problem, while winger Albert Crusat (knee) and defender Antolin Alcaraz will definitely be missing. Despite the encouraging start to the campaign West Ham boss Allardyce is not planning on altering his pre-season targets in the knowledge the Hammers now enter a period of difficult fixtures. When asked if his season's target had altered, Allardyce said: "No, not really.

We have had an excellent start but we look at the next few fixtures that are coming along. "Wigan, Man City, Man United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Stoke, all those games together, and Liverpool - and this makes this group of fixtures extremely difficult to get more points. "I don't think the target has shifted. What we have is a nice cushion of points that we have gathered in the first eight games.

If things get a little bit tighter in the next fixtures, which they might do because of the size of the teams that we are playing, then we will still have had a nice cushion to stay in and around the top half or middle of the table, which will be very important going into Christmas." West Ham travel to face Wigan on Saturday with the Latics yet to record a league victory at home this season. But Allardyce expects a tough challenge from the side who thrashed West Ham 4-1 in the Capital One Cup earlier in the season.

"I was glad that we got our first three points away from home against QPR - which followed the draw at Norwich," Allardyce said. "We have to look to increase the points total with a positive result - whether that is a draw or a win. We are hoping for a win but if we come away with something then we will be delighted from our point of view."

Source: PA