The Latics pulled out all the stops to come away with a crucial 2-0 win at Scunthorpe United on Saturday. After a goal-less first half Patrick McEleney and Eoin Doyle both found themselves on the goal sheet which secured the victory which moved the Latics out of the bottom four. Richie Wellens was delighted and said, “There’s a real positive feeling in the dressing room, it fills us with belief now we’re on a good run. I think the biggest positive today was everybody worked as a team. I felt it was important that we didn’t go behind early against these, they start quick and they’re powerful, if you look at the back four every single one of them is six-foot-two plus. I thought if we were clever in and around them then we could create chances. It was important the starting eleven gave us a real good basis to work from.”
“Obviously now, I look around at my bench at real positive players. You’ve got Patrick McEleney scoring and Eoin Doyle scoring. Aaron Holloway was outstanding when he came on, then you’ve got Ryan McLaughlin. Even Tope [Obadeyi] and Gevaro [Nepomuceno] who are not in the squad, if you look at things now, they’re looking a lot healthier than they were in and around Christmas time.”
“I was frustrated in the first half that we didn’t penetrate them enough, we didn’t get shots off. In the first-half we looked a bit leggy, we haven’t trained or played properly for a number of weeks. We wanted to play five-a-side football, we’ve literally trained on a five-a-side astroturf for the last week. We wanted to play in front of people, nut run or sprint past people which opens up gaps."
"I thought once we got the first fifteen or twenty minutes out of the way we improved and second-half I thought every time we attacked we created some really good opportunities. The first goal was a bit fortunate, but in terms of all of the performance I felt we deserved the win. I’m shouting on to Jack [Byrne] to take the strike, with someone of Jack’s ability and technique, if you take that shot anything can happen. The keeper can make a mistake or as it happens I think it came off his [McEleney’s] back, it just asks questions of people.”