Roberto Martinez: Wigan's FA Cup final no distraction

Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez said reaching the FA Cup final will not distract his team despite losing 2-0 against West Ham to remain in the Premier League's bottom three.

The defeat was Wigan's second in four days since beating Millwall in the FA Cup semi-final last Saturday.

"[The FA Cup final] is not going to be a distraction at all," Martinez said.

"We have enough experience in the squad and enough desire as a club to want to be involved in the FA Cup final."

With fellow relegation rivals Sunderland and Stoke both winning, Wigan's loss at Upton Park meant they failed to close in on Aston Villa who are three points ahead.

The Latics paid for failing to find the net despite dominating for large spells, as Matt Jarvis and Kevin Nolan scored either side of half-time.

Shaun Maloney was at the heart of Wigan's best attacks but the Scot was denied by Jussi Jaaskelainen in the first half, and the West Ham goalkeeper also saved James McArthur's shot following Maloney's clever cut-back.

Martinez said: "In the league we need to find a way to get the points that we deserve. If we play the same level as we have in the last two games in the next five, the points will come."

He added: "We should have had something from the game. The second-half performance was as one-sided game as you will see away from home and to lose [the half] 1-0 was difficult to explain. But you get through those periods and the two teams looked a little bit - not tired - but affected by the fixtures on Wednesday.

"Overall, we couldn't be a strong enough in a couple of actions to keep a clean sheet and that was probably the difference."

After three consecutive away games in the league, Wigan now have five games to maintain their eight-year stay in the top flight - starting with a home fixture next Saturday against Tottenham

And Martinez said that despite being pleased with his side's attacking play, he would look to shore up his defence.

"The results at this stage of the season, you can't rely on other people. We've got 31 points that's nowhere near enough what we need and we are focusing on ourselves," he said.

"It's a very good run of games that we have got in the next five; we have three at home and we have enough opportunities to carry on playing in the manner that we did and being able to get the rewards.

"It's frustrating at times when you really play well and create chances and at the other end you are quite soft in conceding goals and that is probably what we need to rectify."