Leon Balogun said he and his teammates must ‘trust in the process’ after picking up a deserved 1-0 win against Millwall at the DW Stadium.
“It was the perfect present for the manager,” Balogun began, as he referenced manager Paul Cook’s birthday today.
“When you look at the other results, you see how massive this win is for us.
“The next challenge comes on Wednesday and hopefully we can step up to the challenge against Reading like we did against Millwall.
“I got my full debut last weekend, but it was away, so to introduce myself to the club and the Wigan family in this manner, it’s nice, it feels good.”
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Balogun even had a chance to mark his first home start with a goal in the second half, but he admits he doesn’t really care who’s scoring the goals, as long as Latics are finding the back of the net on a regular basis.
“It was a bit confusing because Naisy was still attacking the ball, so it was 50-50, but the main thing is that I’m happy we scored. It was an own goal to win it for us in the end, but I told Dave our fitness coach, “I don’t care who scores, as long as we score and win the game.
“It was 100% deserved, especially if you look at the performances over recent weeks. Apart from Preston, we’ve been up there and close. It felt like we should have won the games against Middlesbrough and Cardiff.
“I spoke to Sam Morsy about it, it’s a process and you could see today that we had more confidence than last week. It’s an improvement, a step forward and you have to trust the process.
“We’ve lost one game in six games, the rest have been draws or wins, so there’s definitely a positive trend and hopefully we can keep going.
“We’ve got to go from game-to-game and be 100%. We have to stick to what we’re doing and we will get our rewards. We can’t allow ourselves to get lazy or do one percent less.
“Against Millwall you can see that if everyone does their job, we can achieve 100%. It equals to results and happy faces.
“We have to deal with this situation and the more people we see out in the stadium standing with us, the better it is for us. We also have the responsiblity to reward them and give back, it’s give and take.”
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Balogun: back with a bang
Wigan Athletic took a step closer to safety in the English Championship with a 1:0 win against the club of former Super Eagles defender (Danny Shittu) Millwall this weekend as Leon Balogun put up a fantastic performance on the day.
The on-loan Brighton man was at the heart of many of the goods things that Wigan did to score the only goal and then to defend the lead.
Balogun’s drive, surge forward and delicate pass just outside Millwall’s 18 yard box initiated the move that ultimately led to the cross that Hutchinson put in the back of his own net for the only goal of the match in 57 minutes.
Wigan then clung on to move two points from safety with Balogun making an important block as the clock ticked down and bodies thrown in the way of a Mahlon Romeo shot for Millwall.
The match ended 1:0
For his efforts, Balogun – who showed calm and composure with the ball for most parts – was rated a bumper 7.4/10 for his performance.
Playing 90 minutes, the 31 year old, who made made 7 clearances and 2 tackles, had a pass accuracy of 84% with the 38 passes he delivered in efforts aimed at all-round purposeful play.
He won most of his aerial and ground duels whilst delivering 8 long balls.
Before the match, Balogun had said : ” as far as I’m concerned, it’s about getting into my game here as quickly as possible and helping the group.”
Balogun would be happy with his own performance as he indeed helped the team on both sides of the pitch.
Watched majestic Balogun display his wares yesterday. Feels with joy to see big boss Keshi reborn in Balogun back to what he knows best.