As we said last week, there are three "leagues" within the Premiership - the top four; the six relegation scrappers; and the rest. And if you lose at the grounds that are set to stage Championship football next season ... you have problems!Parker: "Away Form Is NOT Good Enough"
As we said last week, there are three "leagues" within the Premiership - the top four; the six relegation scrappers; and the rest. And if you lose at the grounds that are set to stage Championship football next season ... you have problems!Scott Parker: "We've got a few games like the Wigan one before the end of the season and we need to make sure we improve. People will look at the fixture list and think they are easy games because they aren't against so-called top teams, but they won't be anything of the sort.
"It's these sorts of games which define a season. It's easy to get yourself up for games against Liverpool and Manchester United, but it's the games against the likes of Wigan, Watford and Sheffield United which will make or break your season.
"These teams are scrapping for their lives and you have to stand up and be counted. It's easy to do that at home, but we need to do it more away from St James's Park.
"If we're going to have any hope of getting into Europe, we will have to play a lot better than we did at Wigan. The bottom line is we're going to have to win away games if we're going to finish in the top six, because we can't just rely on our excellent home form.
"It was a very disappointing game for us at Wigan, although we deserved to get something out of the game because we had a lot of chances in the first half. We missed a penalty when we should have put the game to bed, but we didn't play well in the second half and we fell into their trap. We knew what sort of game it was going to be, we knew it was going to be a difficult game physically, but we didn't handle the conditions well, especially in the second half.
"They didn't produce anything that was special but they got their goal and hung on."