Bramble was Excellent - Bruce

Wigan Athletic boss Steve Bruce turned to praising his defenders following yesterdays 0-0 draw against Stoke at the JJB and he gave special praise to the sometimes maligned Titus Bramble, Bruce told reporters:

"My best players were my defenders they were excellent; strong, powerful, I thought Titus gave a fantastic performance.

'I'm very very pleased for him because he has had his knocks now and then but today he stood up to be counted and said, 'well if you're going to throw it into my box then I'm going to head it clear'. He produced a fantastic performance'.

Bruce felt that the team as a whole didn`t perform well, though they did try and win the game he was concerned that they were missing too many chance and that there could be a repeat of the Middlesbrough game on the cards, he continued:

'I didn't think we played well today.

'I think we were the team who were trying to win the game and we did everything we possibly could.

'I think it's fair to say that my 'flair players' are the ones you expect to produce a pass, to create a goal or to score from a set-piece, and it just wasn't their day, it's as simple as that'.


'The longer it went on all I had in my mind was the Middlesbrough game where we missed chance after chance and they scored.

'They (Stoke) got two corners in the last minutes and I was thinking 'well this would be unjust if they scored'.

'But we didn't manage to break them down and the longer it went on the more frustrated everyone got'.

Never mind Brucie there is always Tuesday and Arsenal away lets hope we can get it right there

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