Roy Hodgson pointed to Liverpool's "stretched" squad as the reason behind his side's 1-1 draw against Wigan.

Liverpool struggled to a point after fours wins on the trot.

"It was nothing like the performances we've shown in recent weeks and that might be because this was a game too far," said the Liverpool manager.

"Our recent games have put a lot of demands on a fairly small squad with quite a few senior players injured," added Hodgson, whose side lie ninth.

With Daniel Agger, Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Glen Johnson injured, Hodgson started with 20-year-old right-back Martin Kelly, while fellow youngsters Jonjo Shelvey and Nathan Eccleston came on as substitutes.

Fernando Torres had put Liverpool ahead early in the first half but Wigan grabbed a deserved second-half equaliser when Hugo Rodallega powered in a shot.

"At the moment, we've got a lot of work to do if we are going to be the big club that we want to be and everyone wants us to be," said Hodgson.

"I would be lying to our supporters if I said there will not be more games like this where we have to scrap and fight and work hard for our points.

"I thought we started well and finished well but I thought there was a long period in between when we were nowhere near as good as we can be.

"If you talk about the clear goal chances, perhaps, we could argue we fully deserve what we got but if you think about the actual play itself then we were fortunate to come away with a point."

606: DEBATE Wigan really should've beaten us there jgourl13

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez praised his side's display after they had Liverpool hanging on for a point.

"The first 15 minutes we were not in the game at all and we got heavily punished as you would expect against world-class players," said Martinez.

"But after that I was extremely pleased with the way we controlled the game, imposed ourselves and created chances.

"You feel when you do that against Liverpool you expect to get the reward of three points.

"I am extremely proud of the players. It would have been very easy to feel sorry about themselves and allow Liverpool to win the game.

"They are really disappointed and frustrated in the dressing room and that fills me with pride and it shows you the characters we have at this club."

Earlier on Wednesday, Liverpool's owners New England Sports Ventures appointed headhunters Spencer Stuart to find a new chief executive to succeed Christian Purslow.

The company was responsible for recruiting Richard Scudamore as chief executive to the Premier League and Ivan Gazidis to a similar role at Arsenal.

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