Character comes to the fore

Latics’ assistant manager writes every Friday for Chron Sport.

WE MADE a good start against Bournemouth at the weekend — before they came back to show they are a good team.

You have to give them credit for getting back into the game at Boundary Park; in a ding-dong battle there weren’t many chances to be had for either side.

We conceded a goal to an error — again — but we went on to show character in the second half.

We didn’t give up the ghost. Listening to the players and staff members at the club who were here then, that probably wouldn’t have happened last season.

It is a plus point that the players always believed they could get back into the game.

We made a couple of changes which went our way and the substitutes Lewis Alessandra and Dean Kelly helped to turn a defeat into a win.

Now we set our sights on the trip south to Brighton, who are right up there in the table.

They had a decent 2-0 win in midweek away from home against Plymouth, so will be buoyant after that.

Resilience is the key going to the Withdean tomorrow, until we find our feet.

It is important we know what we are dealing with, as Brighton are one of the best, if not possibly the best, passing teams in the division.

At the same time, there is a lot for us to go there feeling positive about.

We go into every game believing we can get something out of it and tomorrow is no different.

We are just outside the play-off zone, but I reckon we should be higher.

If you examine the chances we created against Yeovil, Bristol Rovers and Charlton — not half-chances, but gilt-edged ones — then I think we should be at least around four points better off.