Sheridan hoping for turning point

Last updated : 21 September 2007 By Dave Moore
Manager John Sheridan is hoping that the game at Walsall will become the turning point of the season. With only three league goals scored and with the team propping up the division the manager needs the three points from the meeting on Saturday. Shez told Latics World, "We need to win on Saturday. There's no other way of looking at it. We need to start winning games. At the moment we are getting punished, look at Southend. They didn't have many opportunities and then get a goal that was sloppy in my opinion. After a little chance in the first five minutes the goal comes out of the blue, and that's disappointing as it could have been avoided. Other than at Hartlepool, I don't think other teams have got in behind us and created too many problems, but unfortunately we're not scoring at the other end. At the end of the day you need to score goals to win games and we need to sort that out quickly."

Walsall had an impressive 2-1 win at Millwall last weekend, a result which lifted them out of the relegation zone albeit on goal difference. Shez went on, "Walsall had a good away win at Millwall last week and are similar to ourselves in that they're down near the bottom. They will be looking at this game and thinking it's a good opportunity for three points but I want to concentrate on what we're doing. I'm more frustrated than anyone at the moment but I believe we can do it. I think it's just a case of getting that win and then starting a run. Any game is massive because we need points, it's as simple as that. I believe that with a couple of wins we could be in the middle of the table, and it's those who are consistent who are at the top because there's not much difference between the teams in this division. Look at Leeds. They are not playing well but are winning games. We've had them watched three times and they should have lost all three, but they're getting that little bit of luck. The fact that they've got two strikers scoring regularly makes it easier for the defence. You can't just keep defending and defending. If you don't score you're not going to win games."