Wigan boss Steve Bruce swallowed a bitter pill and was left scratching his head after defeat against Sunderland.
Bruce: Organisation cost us
Wigan boss Steve Bruce swallowed a bitter pill and was left scratching his head after defeat against Sunderland.
The Latics coach felt disappointed his side switched off from a Black Cats set-piece that saw Dickson Etuhu head home the opener - but did not think it was a foul in the first place.
"The one thing we try and pride ourselves on and work on is our organisation and we switched off," he said.
"I don't think it was a foul, I have to say that and I said that to the referee. However that doesn't make up for the fact that we've been slack for the only time in the game.
"You can take defeat but sometimes it's hard to swallow because, for me today, we were the better team.
"We haven't took our chances and had a little bit of bad luck, we hit the post, the bar - you're talking a matter of inches - and the goalkeeper's produced a world-class save once or twice.
"You could say it wasn't our day, we deserved something out of the game."
Reunited
The Wigan boss was reunited with his former Manchester United team-mate, Roy Keane, for the third time this season and hoped to make it a trio of wins for the Latics.
But it was Daryl Murphy's super strike that killed off Bruce's men, giving the Black Cats the much needed three points.
"The second goal what wins it - you stand there and applaud and say 'Well done son'. There's not much you can do about that.
"It's been one of those games where you look at it and think 'How on earth have we lost that?' We came here in the cup and won 3-0 and played twice as good today. Sometimes you have to take it and battle on.
"I couldn't say much to the players apart from hard luck, they gave everything they've got, there wasn't much in it in the first half and we've come away scratching our heads and beaten 2-0."
