Bent loves a bit of pressure, says Young

14 April 2012
Charlton 1 Wigan 0

Luke Young experienced the extremes of crowd reaction in only three days — from the England fans' shower of abuse in the Andorra game to the adoring, blind faith of the Charlton punters who refused to believe Darren Bent could miss from the spot.

Young, an England substitute forced to take evasive action from his own supporters on Wednesday, marvelled at how the out-of-sorts Bent handled the fanatical build-up to score the 86th-minute penalty that could yet save Charlton from the drop.

Scroll down to read more:

"There was a lot of pressure on Darren because he didn't have the best of games — and the crowd were already singing his name when he put the ball on the spot," said Young.

"But he loves to be the main man and enjoys people saying: 'His goals can keep us up'. He's a goalscorer and thrives on that kind of pressure."

Right back Young was grateful The Valley faithful refused to disown a performance that was poor, unadventurous and nervy.

"They stuck with us and realised the situation," he added. "It was a massive win for us. We didn't play well but we dug in and got a little lucky at the end with the penalty.

"The other teams just above us should be worried now. We have great belief we are staying up. I never look too much at our situation but I'll be studying tables now and points and goal differences."

Of the England experience, Young said: "I was surprised the crowd were giving the manager abuse after only 14 minutes. But I wouldn't think twice about being picked for the England squad again if I got the chance."

Bent's winner proved a cruel finale for Wigan boss Paul Jewell, in so much trouble with the FA for criticising referees that even his wife warned him further verbal indiscretions would hit the family in the larder.

He still marched on to the pitch at the end to confront Peter Walton over his penalty award. At first it was thought he gave it for Fitz Hall's clumsy manhandling of Hermann Hreidarsson, who had hold of the Wigan player's shirt before going down. However, Hall then upended substitute Marcus Bent and the referee confirmed that was why he awarded the penalty.

Jewell said: "The wife said there'll be no groceries in the home this weekend if I had words with the referee again. I just wanted to smile at him, look him in the eye and shake hands with the assistant.

"I have to keep calm but the biggest thing is I've got belief in the team and that we'll stay up. We're better than the teams down there, basically. There's enough in the team, enough in the squad, to get the amount of points that will keep us up.

"We were sound defensively against Charlton and have been good defensively of late, but have lacked that little bit of devilment in the box."

If Jewell had been just a bit bolder and introduced the attacking wing play of Antonio Valencia earlier, Wigan might have improved on Lee McCulloch's goalmouth skid and nudge against the outside of the left post after 62 minutes. As it was, Charlton manager Pardew was indebted to the unsung Alexandre Song for plugging away in midfield to keep his side afloat.

"He was the only one who put his foot on it and was brave enough to try and make us play," he admitted. "The only time we got crosses in or threatened was instigated by him. Then at the end he won some great headers."

On this performance, Wigan have more chance of surviving than Charlton, for whom opera singer Martin Toal's warm-up routine was more inspired than anything the players showed until Bent's one moment of coolness. Even the home fans going like the clappers — using a folded, fan-like paper novelty discovered by Pardew on a scouting trip to PSV Eindhoven — couldn't lift them until they almost willed Walton to point to the spot. But the Londoners are on a roll and if they win at Manchester City on Friday, Pardew's miracle might just come off.

The Charlton boss claims their recent form has created its own pressure. He said: "I think there is expectation on us now. As I said to the players before the game, I did not see one person in the Press this week who didn't think we were going to win. I think it is dangerous when we are being tipped to win. If you come off the pace just enough then you won't win. I'm not sure we'll get as many plaudits about how we played against Wigan but we are on a roll."

Wigan have released Kristofer Haestad from his loan contract. The Norway midfielder, who arrived at the JJB Stadium in January, will return to IFK Start.

Jewell said: "I cannot fault anything in Kristofer's character and commitment, which has always been first class, but I think he found it difficult to adjust to the demands of the Premiership."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in