Emmerson Boyce has described his Wigan colleague Hugo Rodallega as a "perfect" team-mate.

Rodallega was again Wigan's hero, scoring twice in a 3-1 victory at Burnley to end the Clarets' 100 per cent record at Turf Moor since their arrival on the Premier League stage.

Although the Colombian striker has been plying his trade in the top flight since January, his English is still not good enough for the 24-year-old to face the media.

So it was left to defender Boyce, who sealed the win with Wigan's third, the second of his Latics career and first in 11 months, to assess Rodallega.

"As a team player he is perfect," remarked Boyce.

"He is a quiet lad, but he proves how talented he is on the pitch and he is full of confidence in himself in terms of his ability.

"He works for the team, and when he needs to he pulls out important goals for us, proving just how vital he is for this club.

"He is scoring a lot of winners, chipping in with goals when we need them, and that's what you need from a striker."

Rodallega now has five for the season, with all four of Wigan's league wins this term coming with him on the scoresheet.

"He is a bit of a talisman - but then I could say the same about me!" joked Boyce, and rightly so as his two goals have come in Wigan wins.

He then seriously added: "But long may it continue. If he is scoring and we're winning, then we will take that all day long."

Like any overseas player, Rodallega took time to settle, going 11 games without scoring after his arrival, since when he has struck eight in 14 appearances.

Latics manager Roberto Martinez can consider himself fortunate to have inherited such a player who was initially unearthed by former boss Steve Bruce before his summer exit to Sunderland.

"All he wants is to play football and to push himself to the limit, and he has the perfect attitude," said Martinez.

"As a striker, naturally his main attribute is finishing. In that respect, since the start of the season when he scored at Villa, you can see he has been full of confidence.

"He plays with a smile on his face, and is someone who just needs a chance to score a goal, and we hope he can carry on in this sort of form."

Rodallega's first goal was a simple tap-in after goalkeeper Brian Jensen slipped and twisted his ankle in coming to collect an innocuous cross from Wigan captain Melchiot.

That was in the 11th minute, just seven minutes after Burnley had made the perfect start with Steven Fletcher sliding in a far post-cross from Robbie Blake for his fifth this term.

Rodallega's second was an incisive right-footed drive from 18 yards, before Boyce finished off Burnley with a sidefooted shot from six yards as the home side poorly defended a set-piece.

With struggling Hull the visitors next Saturday, manager Owen Coyle knows his side cannot afford to slip to a third successive defeat.

"It's never a task to pick players up, and I don't consider it as such," said Coyle, intimating it is up to his players to sort themselves out.

"Their career is football, they're well paid, so we will look to bounce back, and bounce back quickly.

"Nobody said this adventure was going to be easy, far from it. We knew there was going to be trials and tribulations along the way.

"Up until this game we have been formidable at home, and we will be again, so we'll take a kick up the backside and make sure we're ready to go again."

Burnley, though, were a shadow of the side that had caused such a stir in defeating Manchester United, Everton, Sunderland and Birmingham on home soil this season.

They had set themselves standards and fallen remarkably short in matching them against Wigan, which is why captain Steven Caldwell was so bitterly disappointed at such a poor performance.

For Caldwell, the key now is ensuring Burnley do not let the defeat drag them down.

"We went down with a whimper," was Caldwell's sad reflection on the game.

"We're going to have setbacks this season, and it's important how we react, to not dwell too much on the disappointment.

"We need to learn quick because the standards are so high."