FA Cup run vital after midweek KO

GERRY Taggart

Latics’ assistant manager’s views, every Friday of the season

THERE is more incentive than ever for us to go on a run in the FA Cup following our Johnstone’s Paint Trophy defeat to Shrewsbury on Tuesday night.

In the first half I felt we played reasonably well. We kept the ball but did not penetrate the opposition defence.

We lost Reuben Hazell to injury, and as the game wore on we got deeper until we were hit by a sucker-punch goal near the end.

It was similar to the Yeovil Town game, in that if we had scored when we were on top, it could have been a different story.

We have said all along how important a cup run is, so there is now even more emphasis on the FA Cup because we want to progress.

It is no secret that one of our targets at the start of the season was to push on and do well in at least one of the cup competitions.

Paul Dickov and myself are looking for a positive reaction from the players.

Having watched the DVD we did not play too badly, but we have to be more clever when teams come here and ‘park the bus’.

That is going to happen quite a lot this season and it is all about how we deal with it.

In the last two matches we haven’t found a way around the visiting defences. It is down to us to keep plugging away.

I was happy to see the reserves put in a good performance against Manchester United reserves in the Manchester Senior Cup, and they deserve credit for doing well against difficult opposition.

But on a cautious note, these players have to do it every week, not just turn up because the opposition is Manchester United.

They need to achieve a level of consistency and show just as much desire in every match.

As I said, they deserve credit for the performance, but no team can turn up one week and then get tanked the next.