Coyle left to rue fruitless pitch battle

Two teams that rarely win unsurprisingly shared a goalless draw that did little to suggest that either will pull away from relegation trouble soon.

Now with just one league win in seven games under their new manager, Bolton move above Owen Coyle's former club, Burnley, into 18th but there is hardly any security for Wigan, two points above with just one win since November, either. Ignoring the fact that they only picked up one point in the mud last night, Bolton can at least console themselves that their next four Premier League matches are against Blackburn, Wolves, Sunderland and Wigan and Coyle is sure that they are moving in the right direction.

In mitigation, Coyle's previous six league games were a victory over Burnley and a draw with Fulham, two losses against Arsenal and defeats at Liverpool and Manchester City.

"I'd be more worried if we weren't creating chances but we are and the more we knock on that door, it will eventually open for us and that will be three points from winning games," Coyle said. "It's always going to be difficult when there's rugby played on the pitch and, with the level that we're at now, it's the best league in the world and the pitch wasn't conducive to free-flowing football."

In an open first half, they were lucky not to trail when Charles N'Zogbia took advantage of slack marking by Paul Robinson and Matthew Taylor to cut inside and curl a shot that bounced away off the inside of the post despite slipping on the poor playing surface.

But Bolton enjoyed the better opportunities after the break, particularly through Taylor. The midfielder threatened with a bobbling effort from a lay-off from Johan Elmander and the same player should have given Bolton the lead when he was played through by a header from Davies but he could only find the side-netting.

The much-anticipated home debut of new boy Victor Moses, who was tracked by Real Madrid before joining the likes of Titus Bramble at Wigan, could not enliven proceedings. After Hugo Rodallega failed to test Jussi Jaaskelainen with an over-head kick, Taylor wasted another opportunity to make the breakthrough for Bolton.

Wigan now find themselves up in 14th position but their manager Roberto Martinez acknowledges that his team will have to improve in the final third of the campaign in order to survive and, despite his purist instincts, he will try to make an advantage out of the muddy pitch.

He said: "It's five games in 18 days between rugby and football and we don't have to hide it, it is a bad surface. There's nothing we can do about the state of the pitch but I'm pleased with the way the players approached this situation and I'm sure we'll get a lot of points from learning how to play on pitches like this."

Wigan (4-2-3-1): Kirkland; Melchiot, Caldwell, Bramble (Scotland, 51), Figueroa; McCarthy, Diame; N'Zogbia, Scharner, Rodallega; Moreno (Moses, 80). Substitutes not used: Stojkovic, Thomas, Gomez, Sinclair, Boyce

Bolton (4-4-2): Jaaskelainen; Steinsson, Ricketts, Knight, Robinson; Lee (Weiss, 70), Muamba, Gardner (Cohen, 84), Taylor (Wilshere, 87); Elmander, Davies. Substitutes not used: Al Habsi, Samuel, Mark Davies, O'Brien.

Referee: H Webb (South Yorkshire)

Booked: Bolton Muamba.

Man of the match: Elmander. Attendance: 18,089.