The undefeated run under John Sheridan came to an end at Sheffield United on Saturday. Usually a happy hunting ground for the Latics, they just were not in the game and fell to a 3-0 defeat. Luckily, all the other games that mattered at the bottom of the league went the way they should which still keeps the Latics in control of their own destiny.
The manager admitted, “We didn’t start the game well at all. We looked really flat so I matched it up to 3-5-2 and I thought we would deal with it. Every goal is a bad goal but all their goals could have been prevented. First goal, two of our players have miskicked it, third goal two of our players have miskicked it and the second goal is a throw-in in the middle of their half and we’ve given the ball away cheaply and they’ve countered us and we’ve lost the game 3-0. They moved the ball well and we never got going. We had a spell just before the third goal where their goalkeeper has made a great save and then we had Curtis Main’s shot. We just needed a goal quickly and I thought for 15 minutes we had a go. Curtis came on and changed the game but we didn’t deserve anything from it. It’s a bad day at the office, I know that and I have to accept that. We have been beaten but the results around us have been good for us and now we’ve got two massive games at home coming up.”
“I’m not going to be too hard on the players. They have done well for me since I’ve been in and we’ve been on a good run so I’ve got to stick with them and I’ll back them all the way. We’ve got two tough games coming up and these are the ones we have to win. I’ve said before, we are going to lose games, we don’t want to but we are going to lose games, but the next two games are against teams around us so we have to win.”