Dean is a model pupil

Latics assistant manager gives his thoughts every Friday throughout the season

DEAN Furman has been one of our shining lights so far and he is starting to reap the rewards of the effort he puts in.

Two great strikes have come for him in two games, the latter in the 1-1 draw at Charlton, and he thoroughly deserves the acclaim.

Dean's attitude and application have been absolutely superb and he is a lad who wants to listen and learn.

When you tell him something, he has no problem with doing it to the exact letter. He has got to grips with what we are trying to do.

With Oumare Tounkara, he is still a baby in football terms.

He has only played three games of league football in total and there is still so much more to come from him — myself and Paul Dickov both strongly believe that.

Oumare will get better with the more games he has. He could easily have had three goals at Charlton on Saturday, hitting the post twice, while their goalkeeper has made a top-class save from him as well.

He is growing in confidence all the time and is starting to come out of his shell. Long may it continue.

Hopefully, it will result in goals for the boy, because he is creating chances for himself which is a good sign.

Overall, it was a decent point for us at Charlton. At the end of the game I wouldn't say that myself and Paul were disappointed, but we thought we could have won the game and the lads certainly did everything in their power to do so.

It was another great performance and the result didn't quite go our way simply because we didn't get the rub of the green at the right times.

Everyone seemed to be saying before the game that we would do well to get a point down at Charlton.

Obviously, our mindset was a little bit different to that.

We thought we deserved three points at the end of it, but sometimes that happens. Often you will play well and not quite get what you want in football and that was the case on Saturday.

With the incident that saw Jason Jarrett sent off late in the game, initially I thought it was a nothing challenge and, at best, a free-kick.

I can understand the referee being under a bit of pressure and melting by blowing his whistle.

But there is no way it was a yellow card and other forces came together to get Jason sent off.

|t is unfortunate for Jason as he has been brilliant since we have put him in at centre-back.

Again, he is another player who is willing to listen. I am constantly chatting to him about the position and he is desperate to learn and to do well for us.