Wigan Athletic boss Roberto Martinez believes the upcoming home games against their relegation-threatened rivals are crucial.
Seven home matches remain for the Latics including crucial clashes against fellow strugglers Burnley, Portsmouth and Hull.
He said: "We are going into the last third of the campaign now with seven games at home and we have to make sure we take responsibility and cash in on the performances.
"The performances have been good enough to get more points and anyone who has seen us play would agree with that."
The DW Stadium pitch will prove a hindrance to the passing game Martinez is keen for his team to play, but the Latics boss is confident they can come up with a battle plan.
"Five games in 18 days is an impossible mission if you want to keep a good pitch," he added.
"This is the best league in world football and every ground should be up to standard.
"In the short term we need to adapt and make sure we win games but I never blame the pitch and I'll never do that.
"We are a footballing side but when you don't play on good pitches you have to find solutions to win any way you can.
"You need to be clever enough or creative enough to find a way to win games on a harder pitch as it is now.
"There are little tricks, many things you can do, even on a bad pitch like this and there are many aspects we can tweak a little bit.
"But we will never lose our philosophy."
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