Before and after match thoughts
Last updated : 27 February 2005 By Dave Moore
Tony Philliskirk (pictured) made sweeping changes to the team for their visit to Huddersfield. Before the match he said, “Every coach sees things differently, so I’ll have different views to Brian Talbot and that might be reflected in the team I select. There will be players who thought they were regulars under Brian and players who thought they were on their way out but those roles could be reversed. My only brief at the moment is to take charge tomorrow, but we need to improve our performances as well as our results.”
Philliskirk did make six changes to the team but it wasn’t enough to win the game. Two mistakes by Haining allowed the Terriers to take a two goal lead, and despite a gallant second half fight back, it wasn’t enough. Branston gave the visitors some hope with a goal and the good news was that 1,500 Latics supporters sang their hearts out for the team. Obviously, the future is starting to look brighter. Time will tell and there may be news of a new manager being appointed in the not too distant future.
After the match, caretaker manager Tony Philliskirk told the official site, “We won. We might have lost the game but we won. We're in a precarious position obviously in the League. We didn't get the points but I thought they were absolutely magnificent, every one of them. The first eleven, the substitutions that I made, the lads that weren't involved in the dressing room, so in my eyes we've won today. I think we've turned a corner. I think the passion we showed, in the face of adversity, because of the early goal we gave away scuppered all the well-laid plans we had, tactically. But I told the lads before the game that I would shout if I felt that we needed to change it. We did and when did I made the change, tactically, and went to the 4-4-2, I thought we were excellent.”
“I don't want to start talking about officials so please don't anyone ask me a question about them. I wouldn't say that the new formation didn't work. I gave Matty Appleby the job to play in front of the back four to protect our two centre-backs because the lads who were being criticised for the number of goals that we were giving away, were being cruelly exposed. Mistakes happen in football. I'm not going to criticise Will Haining. He doesn't need me to tell him that he's made a mistake, he knows himself. But when you give goals away like that you think, I wanted us to try and be a bit solid.”
“We had Chris Killen available as an out-and-out striker apart from Kenny Cooper. Those were the cards that were dealt to me yesterday. Wes Wilkinson was certainly in my thoughts. I would have possibly played him if I wanted to play 4-4-2 but he went down with an ankle injury on Friday. That's just the way things are going at the moment so to say it didn't work, but both goals came from mistakes and you can't legislate for that. I thought especially second half we dominated the game but maybe Peter will come and say otherwise. If we could have got the goal a little bit earlier we had the chances to draw the game. But I'm really proud of them. We've struggled lately, obviously."
"That's eight losses in a row now but I feel like we've turned the corner. He might be here today the new manager, I don't know. If he wasn't hopefully he'll watch the video and realise that he's got something to work with here because in my eyes, I think we won today.”