Players fired up to get it right

Latics’ wing wizard writes every week for Chron Sport

NOT good enough, all over the field. That is the only verdict you can reasonably and honestly come to in describing our performance against Scunthorpe.

We started the game fairly well before they got the first goal, which set us back. We nicked one to equalise, then another to go 2-1 up without having got into our stride.

What we needed to do from there was get into the half-time break with the lead intact so we could regroup ahead of the second half. Instead, we let in another poor goal.

Once Scunthorpe got their third, it demoralised us a little — which is something we can’t allow to happen.

All the players were very disappointed in the dressing room and we had a chat about what had gone wrong. Earlier in the season, we had been taking leads and not holding on to them and now, we seem to be going behind and it is always difficult to come back from that.

The key is for us to manage situations better on the pitch. We went through the Scunthorpe game in detail on Monday, after which we have had a positive week on the training ground looking to put it behind us.

We have Cameron Dummigan and Jay Fulton back again following international duty and after they played their part in the 3-3 draw at Gillingham, I have no doubt that they would have wanted to play last week.

There are no excuses, but it is a plus for us that they are in the squad for the Sheffield United game once again. Everyone will be up for it and wanting to put it right, for sure.

Sometimes in football, after a poor result you can play against a side that looks better on paper and end up raising your game considerably.

We want to put a smile on everyone’s faces.