League Two football under new Head Coach, Laurent Banide, began with a whimper. The Latics fell 1-0 at Forest Green Rovers with the team failing to have a shot on target. The new coach's baptism into League Football must have been a shock but he realises that his side needed more quality in possession after the match.
He admitted, “It was a bad result and we must play better if we're going to win games. We had a game plan, but we needed to keep the ball better and create more opportunities. We lost the ball too quickly and we became tired, so we have to be more technical and have more quality. If we have more quality then we'll have better occasions to score goals, but after their goal it was difficult. We had a couple of chances to score but we didn't, we're upset, but we must work for the next game. It was better, but it wasn't perfect, and we need to work more on pushing the team. A lot of players were not here last year, some came yesterday, so we need to work with everyone and continue. It's important to get points and start our season off well, so we must improve.”
Speaking of Urko Vera who missed a great chance, he said, “It's why he goes onto the pitch he has a chance, but I don't think he was ready. It's football, it's like that he must continue to work and maybe he needs more confidence. There's a lot of things to do as a team and step by step we must produce more for the supporters and our team. We try to do what we can, there's a lot of games and we don't have too much time to prepare. We'll work tactically, we'll look at the video and work with the coaches on how to improve. Today it was better, but not 100%, we have a good opportunity to improve and we need time, but we don't have too much of it.”