Watson hoping for a fair chance

Wigan midfielder Ben Watson is hoping to be given a fair crack of the whip by boss Roberto Martinez after a season of frustration. It was Watson's 80th-minute strike that sparked Wigan's remarkable comeback in yesterday's 3-2 victory over Arsenal at the DW Stadium.Trailing 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining, Watson sidefooted home what many thought would merely be a consolation.But Titus Bramble and Charles N'Zogbia fired Wigan to their first Premier League win over the Gunners after eight defeats and a draw, leaving the Latics seven points clear of the relegation zone.The match was Watson's first league start for almost a year as he has found himself surplus to requirements under the Spaniard since his arrival last summer.The 24-year-old has this season spent four months on loan at QPR and another month at West Brom, last week intimating a permanent move to the promoted Baggies was not out of the question during the closed season.Watson now feels he has given Martinez food for thought in the wake of a superb display against the Gunners."It's been a frustrating season for myself, but it was nice to be back, playing and getting on the scoresheet," said Watson."I've not played as much as I wanted to play in the team this year, which is the gaffer's choice at the end of the day. He makes the decisions."I've been out on loan a couple of times, worked hard, got my chance and I feel like I did reasonably well in this game."Whether I've done enough to convince the manager I should be a regular, I don't know. I've played one game. I don't want to get ahead of myself."I'll go into training the next few days, do what I've been doing all season and we'll see what happens at the weekend."Watson certainly played his part in a heroic Wigan display that belied their status as a club fighting to beat the drop.Watson, a £2million buy from Crystal Palace in January last year, added: "We said at half-time if we could step it up we could win the game."But then we went 2-0 down early in the second half and we were thinking 'Bloody hell, we've now a mountain to climb', especially against a team like Arsenal."People were probably thinking the game was over and done with, but we showed great character and fighting spirit."We stuck in there, got that first goal back and then there was only one team in it after that. We got what we deserved."The astonishing result leaves Wigan one win shy of near-certain safety, with vital matches at relegation rivals West Ham and home to Hull looming over the next two weekends."It was a massive result," said Watson."The winning goal from Charles was a fantastic strike, a great goal to win a game, any game, and a great moment for the team and for everybody in the town."We're at West Ham this weekend, which is another massive game for us, and if we can get a result there then we'll be safe."This club needs to stay in the Premier League. We're almost there."If we stay up we then need to finish as high as we can and build on it next season."

Source: Team_Talk