The Latics slipped to another worrying defeat at high flying Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday night by a 2-0 scoreline. Manager Lee Johnson has been criticised by some of the fans for not continuing with the attacking formation that caused Carlisle United problems in the 1-0 victory last Saturday. Johnson has defended his team selection and pointed to Mark Oxley’s mistake in the 50th minute as the reason for Athletic's downfall. Adam Rooney and Jonson Clarke-Harris both came on as substitutes to try to bring them into the game but Leigh Griffiths took advantage from a Jonathan Grounds slip to win the game for the Wolves.
Johnson said, “Kirk Millar was unlucky not to play. He did well on Saturday but sometimes you go with what you think gives the best chance to win a game. I felt that with the quality they have in the forward areas, we had to shore it up a bit. I genuinely think the game plan worked. It was a mistake, not keeping hold of it, and they stuck it in. The second one was down to the conditions. Our shape was good, distances were good and they couldn’t break through us. We could have been a bit more effective on the break. We played some neat, tidy football and frustrated the crowd. That was part of the game plan and it worked. We were short on football arrogance. They had it and it could have been a lot less comfortable than it was.”