I'd have taken a point before kick-off but after what seemed like we dominated proceedings especially in the first half it seems like two points dropped.

Stoke City is a must win game now.

Roberto reckoned .....

"The hardest thing is coming away from home and scoring that first goal and once we did that, we coped really well in the first half with Sunderland's threat.
We expected them to be direct and put us under pressure in the last third, but the disappointment is that we needed to score that second goal.
If you score that second goal, the whole games changes and everything is a little bit easier for you.
We are getting punished for very, very little and it seems we need a lot to take our chances.
But overall, I am very pleased with the performance in terms of the defensive attributes we had to show, the togetherness, the responsibility."

"It was a tough encounter, we all knew Sunderland were going to be physical and put plenty of pressure on us in the final third, but we coped with that very well but coming away from home it's always difficult to score the first-goal and we did well to get in front. From there we created good chances to kill the game and claim three points, which would have been deserved.

Watching the way we soaked up the Sunderland pressure and coped with what they threw at us will give us a good platform for the next 15 games.

Also when you look at the two new players who came in they did a good job and I was delighted with that aspect, we look very strong right now.

On the other hand we could probably do a little more on the ball. At times I think we were a little tense, but to come here and hold onto the lead for so long was very pleasing and says a lot about the characters and talent we have in the dressing room.

I was pleased with many aspects of our game today which will allow us to carry on improving the standards we have and get the results our performances deserve.

Our starting positions, responsibility and intensities were fantastic throughout the game, and we were always a threat. Overall I think we did enough to come away with a win, let alone a draw.

One major positive is that when you look at the bench now it's not just the quality we have there it's also having a different dimension available if we need it.

All the ingredients you need to work as a team were there, it's an excellent platform for the rest of the season. We were heavily tested and responded very well which all serves well for the future."

Momo Diame's superb opener will be watched over and over again this season, not just tonight, and the gaffer explained how hard the midfielder has worked to hit such a high:

Momo's goal was as good as you'll see in the Premier League today, and then to create quality chances for Charles and James was a great sign.

Momo deserved that. He works extremely hard for the team doing the work that isn't always easy on the eye, but that needs to be done. Once he showed that power and desire in the final third he finished it in the perfect way."

I was very pleased with the roles Victor Moses and Marcelo Moreno undertook straight away. They are two players who are going to push very hard to improve themselves and earn a place in the starting line-up and that's very pleasing."

In a way when I saw the seven-minutes go up I saw it as a chance to go on and win the game still, that's how confident we were, dealing with their pressure well and looking good on the ball."

agree with you barr staff it felt like two points dropped after starting so well and Rodalellga not happy with being subbed well acording to paul Merson anyway still an away point and bruce not lookingt happy is not too bad
now come on Bobby and latics please beat stoke
it is saturday

We can't underestimate just how important Tuesday night's game now is.

Although we'd have been happy with a point beforehand, wins for Hull and Burnley mean a draw wasn't really good enough for either the Mackems or ourselves, certainly not enough to be able to make you breath any easier when you look at the precarious state of the lower reaches of the 'EPL' table.

Stoke's poor away form ought to see us come out all guns blazing and whether you agree with Martinez tactics and selections or not, it's important that the crowd play their part by being vocal and getting behind the team.

Success could see us moving up one or two valuable places in the table, defeat - well that really doesn't bear thinking about.

Looking at the Table this morning, you'd be looking at 35 or 36 points for safety ala by the skin of your teeth & goal difference.

So maybe 38 to 40 for survival taking into account 1 team always having an amazing run at the end of the season.

You can see Portsmouth staying down there (how they have fiddled staying out of Administration beats me), and then any 2 from 9, and looking up the table us included up to Stoke are not safe.

So based on 23 points & 15 games to go, we'd need around 5 wins or 15 points to feel safe and with the odd couple of surprise draws to get us to the 40:

Stoke A - 9th Feb
Bolton H - 17th Feb
Spurs H - 21st Feb
Birmingham A - 27th Feb
Liverpool H 8th Mar
Bolton A - 13th Mar
Villa H 16th Mar
Burnley H 20th Mar
Man City A 29th Mar
Fulham A 2nd Apr
Portsmouth H 10th Apr
Arsenal H 17th Apr
West Ham A 24th Apr
Hull H 1st May
Chelsea A 9th May

So looking at the fixtures the ones in Red you'd not expected any points. Yellow you'd be looking for a point. Green you would really be looking for the wins.

As you can see we don't really have 5 fixtures were you would see us winning, based on form, experience & Jam. So I think what will save us this season is draw like yesterday, there 7 out of the 15 matches were we could pick up a point & add to the 5 we already have.

you have Stoke away there ATL11 we drew there home i would expect to beat them but i am not saying we will lets hope that our strikers can start to find the net with a bit consistency
as our defence dont inspire me at all I have my fingers crossed already for tuesday

Considering the last time Stoke managed to score in an away match was on the 8th November in a defeat at Hull you'd hope we should have enough to beat them on Tuesday.

But, your right, the defence looks as stable as John Terry's marriage, so you never know from one minute to the next if some cock up will gift them a chance.

That’s very pretty Andy TL.

The worrying thing is that two of the “teams worse than us ©” actually went and won on a day when most of us here would consider a point on Wearside as a positive. In essence our failure to hold onto a lead AGAIN cost us two league places and dropped us right into the dogfight. There’s only Pompey who looked nailed on to go down at this stage and the survivors will be those who have the stomach for a fight and I’m a bit uncertain whether we have that.

Bolton were unlucky yesterday, West Scam were unlucky and in the end so were Sunderland as we escaped defeat with a goal line clearance by Kenwyn Jones who had already scored from another free header and hit the post after walking though our defence almost unchallenged.

The greens are must wins (but we won’t win all of them) and I would add Stoke to that list after Saturdays result, anything from the reds will be a bonus. I can’t see us getting anything at the Cottage as it is a bogey ground and the rest of them could go either way, but at this stage I fear a negative result or draw. On current form (8 pts from 10 games) we would expect to win only two more games all season and draw a further six giving us around 35 pts which is bang in the middle of squeaky bum territory.

I’m a bit confused about the new signings who only came on from the bench yesterday as I thought it was imperative that at least one of them was given a start to improve the debacle we are witnessing at the moment. The club spent very little in the window preferring the unknown and untried to an established player which is what we needed. I’m reluctant to blame this totally on Bob as I’m sure a certain person whose current interest seemingly lies at “Hotel Babylon” rather than “Footballer’s Wives” will have had a big say in who we could afford, but if the new players are deemed not up to it yet, there’s not a lot of time left to get them there.

Bert at least Wolves lost today after taking the lead and bobby comes up with a win about every three or four games so Stoke could be in the firing line i would have started with at least one of the new signings but i am not in charge.

Our defence is a shambles as an admirer of the Italian style of defending such greats as Gentile Bergomi Maldini and Baresi I cant believe the space we allow the opposition add Colin Methven to that list' it must be hard for the strikers knowing that they probably have to score two to win

What Bert said about signing the more established player who isn't unproven, isn't unknown, won't need time to settle in a different country is something that is a product of Mr Wigan Athletic working under the orders of Whelan.

Don't believe all the hype of Chairman Dave being the ex-pro footballer (broke his leg in a Cup final don't you know) who loves his own town team so much he'll take a gamble on not making a profit to preserve their Premier League status. Whelan is a ruthless business man first and foremost and will look where investing money can give him the best returns irrespective of anything else that might get in the way.

Signing the likes of Benjani, McCarthy or Roberts would have given Latics a decent chance of an instant return, hitting the ground running so to speak, which like Bert says is something we badly need considering the predicament we're in.

Unfortunately, spending money on an experienced Premier League striker that can't be flogged on for a vast profit in the next couple of years doesn't fit the criteria and so we have an untried Championship player at this level and an overseas player who has never played in this country before. Both could become great successes and if so our 'EPL' status will be preserved for the time being and Dave will make more Palacios/Valencia type profits.

But both are serious gambles that may or may not come off and if the latter occurs then our Premier League status is in serious doubt.