Wigan Athletic Football Club News

• Nickname:Latics
• Founded:1932
• Manager:Roberto Martinez

• Ground:JJB Stadium
• Capacity:25,000

Bruce backs striker approach

30 Mar 2009 - 12:57:52

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Wigan Athletic manager Steve Bruce is content that his cautious introduction of striker Hugo Rodallega will pay dividends in the future.

The £4.5million recruit from Mexican side Necaxa has made just two starts for the Latics to date, but Bruce has no worries about Rodallega's long-term prospects in English football.

He told the Evening Post: "We've had Hugo up our sleeves for a while and one of the first questions to me after the Hull game was why hasn't he played more often?

"I wanted to play him, but I knew we needed to get some basics into him before starting him regularly.

"The first thing was for him to get used to being here, remember he's come halfway round the world to play for us.

"I could quite easily have thrown Hugo in at the deep end, but he would have been right up against it and the pressure would have been on.

"Instead we have given him time to settle, get used to it and that is paying off. By the end of the season he'll be fully settled.

"Then he can come back after the summer and have a proper pre-season with us. I'm thinking we've got a very good player on our hands and he's a little bit different to what we've had before."