Paul Dickov watched in anguish as his team allowed Bristol Rovers to get their first win under ex-Latics manager Dave Penney. They were already on a hiding to nothing as their last away win at the Pirates came back in 2000 in what has become a bogey game for the Latics.
Dickov commented, “We created five or six excellent chances but failed to score and then we switched off at the back and conceded a goal. That is three games without a goal and we have created enough chances in those games to have won five or six. We have to take our chances while keeping our concentration for every minute of the game. That's six chances off the top of my head and we need to be more ruthless at both ends of the pitch. We need to defend properly and stand up and be counted. And when the ball goes in the opposition box, our players need to get hurt sometimes by getting your head in and showing a desire to put the ball in the back of the net which we haven't got at the moment. We know we are a good team, but have to do the fundamental things right. Last week we were talking about a seven match unbeaten run so two defeats doesn't make us a bad team, but we have to get back to basics.”
Dickov gave a debut to this weeks signing Sam Mantom and he commented, “Sam had a fantastic debut and he is an excellent player. We do our homework on players and I don't think he lost the ball once. He kept it simple but, when we needed that bit of quality, he provided it.”