Wigan Athletic forward Shaun Maloney feels that he needed to score his late equaliser in his side's 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers to make up for his poor performance.

The Scotland international struck deep into added time as he curled a free kick past Julio Cesar to earn his side a precious point in their fight against the drop.

"It was needed because it was one of my poorer performances for the club, so I needed to do something to try and rescue the match. Fortunately the free kick went in," Maloney told the Daily Mail.

"It wasn't quite good enough from us for large parts of the game. It wasn't because of nerves."

Wigan are 18th in the Premier League but are level on points with 17th-placed Sunderland, with only goal difference separating the teams.