Saints may leave gaps to exploit

Latics’ assistant manager writes every Friday for Chronicle Sport
OUR finishing let us down against Colchester.

Sometimes, it just boils down to pure inexperience and in the goalless draw last Saturday, that was the key.

We were naive in front of goal — but at the same time our endeavour, application and attitude were spot-on.

Aside from not scoring, that was the best performance we have seen from Oumare Tounkara.

He looked a threat every time he got the ball and the only thing that let him down was his finishing.

Looking at the two halves of the game, we were definitely the better team.

We chucked the kitchen sink at them and were a bit unlucky. In saying that, they had a couple of chances to hit us on the break.

Afterwards, we were sitting there thinking it was two points dropped.

They are a team whose budget is well above ours. But there is no doubt about it, we were disappointed not to have won.

Playing at home, a lot of pressure is put on us by the fans.

Because we are a young team — the average age is around 22 years old — we have got to learn to deal with the expectations that are tied in with the history of this club.

It will come over time. And it must be said our supporters were excellent against Colchester.

Playing away, as we are tomorrow at Southampton, the pressure comes off and the players express themselves a little more freely.

The onus is on the home team to try to break us down and that leaves gaps for us.

It is a massive game and the St Mary's Stadium is a lovely place to go and play football. Hopefully, we can rise to the occasion.

Southampton are probably the biggest club in the division and it is a great opportunity for our players to go there and show their wares.

Hopefully, as the season progresses, they will educate themselves as to what playing in this league is all about.

We think they are not far away. There isn't a lot wrong with what we are doing.