Roberto Martinez admitted to being 'very, very satisfied' after seeing his Wigan side put in a thoroughly professional performance at Southampton.
Latics boss lauds display in Saints success
Roberto Martinez admitted to being 'very, very satisfied' after seeing his Wigan side put in a thoroughly professional performance at Southampton.
The Saints gave reigning Premier League champions Manchester City a scare in their first game back in the big time, but were unable to raise their game to similar heights for a home date with the Latics.
Goals from Franco di Santo and Arouna Kone handed Wigan a 2-0 win at St Mary's and left their boss beaming at the final whistle.
"I think to say I am pleased would be an understatement," Martinez said.
"I am very, very satisfied because we knew how difficult it would be and I thought the first half-an-hour showed that.
"When you come to a newly-promoted side like Southampton with an incredible feeling and momentum from the last two seasons, we knew we would have to cope with that in the first half-an-hour.
Experience
"I don't think the Southampton players should be disappointed at all. I thought they put us in a position where we had to defend and needed Ali Al-Habsi to be at his best.
"But from then on I think we used our experience from last season when we went to [promoted] Swansea at the Liberty Stadium and had a similar experience.
"We started to keep the ball well, we opened up a few good opportunities and then to score two goals from open play away from home is always tremendous.
"That with a clean sheet in the opening home game of Southampton's season is a real achievement that my players deserve a lot of recognition for."
Kone was drafted in by Martinez to cover the sale of Victor Moses to Chelsea, but Martinez believes his entire squad have stepped up to the plate after seeing an important figure head through the exits.
"I think we need to remember today that the performance was one of those where you need everyone, not just the XI that were on the pitch," he said.
Responsibility
"The three subs that came on had clear instructions that they had to pick up the tempo of the game.
"I think it would be unfair to single out one player. I think the whole team took massive responsibility after losing Victor Moses.
"Victor Moses leaves with our blessing. He has done everything he could to help our football club and with that he helped his career.
"He arrived aged 19 and you get really attached to him, but I think this group of players are desperate to fulfil his responsibility and his boots.
"There are a few players that are desperate to take that role and we've obviously got three games in this busy week.
"You're going to see a lot of players given an opportunity to show what we can do and that is a competitive edge we have in this group."
