Bruce's best-ever moment

Wigan Athletic manager Steve Bruce hailed his team's escape from the threat of relegation from the Premier League as the best moment of his managerial career.

Two goal from Luis Antonio Valencia secured a crucial 2-0 win at Aston Villa and ensured that the Latics have completed a superb turnaround in fortunes since the arrival of Bruce in November.

Bruce said after the victory: "Arguably we have left our best performance to a big stage like this and after we played like we did today, we deserve to be in the Premier League next year.

"We have put on a really good performance. But we have done that at Chelsea and at Liverpool and this is a wonderful result for us.

"Defensively we have been difficult to beat again and the mentality has been fantastic. We were averaging two goals a game in December and that had to change because we could not win every game by three goals.

"Paul Scharner has been terrific since we moved him to centre-half and Emmerson Boyce has had a really good second half of the season To have picked up 31 points since December is tremendous and all the lads deserve a pat on the back.

"I think this is arguably the best thing I have ever done, because when I arrived we were down there with Derby with only nine points. I am glad I have repaid the faith the chairman placed in me."