
Wigan boss Steve Bruce hailed his side's battling spirit as they halted Liverpool's title aspirations with a 1-1 draw on Wednesday.
For the second successive home match, the Latics snatched a late goal having beaten Tottenham in injury-time on 11th January.
This time round they came from behind to earn a priceless draw, thanks to an 83rd minute penalty by on-loan Mido, which could play a crucial role in this year's Premier League race.
"The resilience of them was there again," said the Latics boss, who in the last week has lost two key players in striker Emile Heskey and midfielder Wilson Palacios in the transfer window - and goalkeeper Chris Kirkland out with a back injury.
"We have had to make five changes - big changes - from the team that played 10 days ago.
"It has been a difficult January for us. But we've made a few changes, and a couple of them have hit the ground running.
"The one thing they do is stick at it and have a right good crack at it. In the last 20 to 25 minutes, they really got the bit between their teeth.
"Lee Cattermole got among them and tackled everything that moved. It was a decent performance from us.
"They all rolled up their sleeves and showed great heart and great courage and we could have nicked it at the finish."
Mido, who had already scored against Liverpool for Middlesbrough this season, showed his bottle by stepping up and coolly slotting the equaliser and Bruce was keen to praise both him and new signing Hugo Rodallega for their efforts.
"Everybody knows he's (Mido) got a wonderful talent and I hope he can come here and just play football and enjoy it.
"He certainly looked like he enjoyed it - he can't remember the last time he played 90 minutes.
"And if Rodallega would have stuck that one in at the death it would have been a wonderful start for us but it's very, very pleasing to see them start like that."

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