sport

Martinez laments Wigan start

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez was left bitterly disappointed with his side's poor start in their comprehensive 4-0 home defeat to Liverpool.

After playing so well in beating fellow strugglers Reading 3-0 last week, the last thing the Latics needed was to fall behind so early in the match, but were up against it after only two minutes.

"The first goal showed a real lack of concentration as Downing had a free header in the six-yard box," he said.

"The first 20 minutes we were very soft and defensively nowhere near where we needed to be.

"That (first) goal had a snowball effect on our performance."

Martinez denied not having a method of negating the threat of Luis Suarez, with the Uruguayan's hat-trick costing them dearly.

"If you look at the stats at the end we had as many shots on target as they had but the performance of Pepe Reina had a bigger effect on the result than us stopping Luis Suarez," he added.