Travel woes continue

Last updated : 24 February 2008 By Dave Moore

The Latic's travel woes continued at Brighton as Glenn Murray got the only goal in the 61st. minute of the game to condemn Athletic to another defeat. It was the fifth road trip that they failed to win but more worryingly is that they have only hit the net once in that time, and that was from the penalty spot.

Chris Taylor sliced a good chance wide in the first half and Deane Smalley almost got an equaliser in the 73rd. minute but keeper Mark Crossley also had to be alert too to keep out the Seagulls. Gary McDonald squandered a good chance but it just wasn't to be for the Latics.

Manager John Sheridan was furious with the inept performance as he can see his play-off hopes dwindling with each such outing. He told Latics World, "We didn't get out of the blocks in the first 20 minutes. We were slow, sloppy and didn't start the game well at all. Despite that I think we went on to have the two best chances of the first half, but we couldn't score and if you don't do that you won't win. I don't mind people missing, but we do finishing every day and you have to hit the target. I'm sick of saying it."

"The players have to attack the ball and try to move people around in the box by staying on the move. Then we've given away a terrible goal where their left-back has gone past three of our players like they're not there. Even a point would have been okay but we won't go anywhere with performances like that. Too many people looked tired, and we lacked desire and didn't look like we wanted it enough."

David Livermore (pictured), on loan from Hull City, admitted that the team were not at their best. He confessed, "We had a couple of chances, but overall I don't think we did well enough to get anything from the game. We did okay in patches but we weren't really at the races. The first half was backs-to-the-wall stuff, although we did kick on and create one or two chances."