No excuses, we got what we deserved

PATIENCE, PLEASE . . . Reuben Reid needs time to catch up.

Latics’ assistant manager writes every Friday for Chron Sport
I CAN'T say a lot about the incident that occurred towards the end of the game on Tuesday night — but as for the game itself, you have to give Carlisle a lot of credit.

They came to Boundary Park and matched us physically and in terms of work-rate.

We had only played them three weeks ago, so they knew what we were all about after seeing us up there in Cumbria.

They were lucky to walk off the pitch with a point that day.

But they knew what to expect from us and went on to give as good as they got on Tuesday.

We made another mistake and were punished for it. But as much as it was disappointing, we got what we deserved.

We didn't take our early chances when we had them and we paid for it.

I have no complaints over the result, though, as they probably deserved it on the balance of play.

Sometimes you have to just hold your hands up, say well done and move on.

It was a terrific turn-out on Tuesday and the reduced admission price of £2 was a great idea to try to get fans back inside the ground.

It worked a treat and there was a great atmosphere.

While the fans were excellent, it was a pity our performance couldn't match up.

As a staff we know that if we keep on working hard then we will win more than we lose.

It is hard to say whether the derby against Huddersfield three days earlier had taken something out of us.

I don't like making excuses and we had been on an unbeaten run.

When you are playing well and getting results, week-in and week-out, you just want to play football.

We don't do a lot of training leading up to a game when they are coming thick and fast.

There are a lot of young lads in our squad who probably aren't conditioned to playing so many games in such a short space of time because of the postponements. Perhaps some of the younger lads have felt it a bit.

You can't just run through a pre-season training regime and think that is you done for 46 games. With time, you learn to manage yourself through games.

The lads are giving there all. There are going to be hiccups along the way, for various reasons, so we have to accept that.


BEN Amos is growing with every game he plays.
He made a little mistake early on in the Carlisle game which we managed to clear.

But his all-round game is improving all the time. He is growing in confidence and though he is a quiet lad, he is coming out of his shell and that is showing in his performances.

Ben is going to be a big player in the future and it is a privilege to have him here.

We worked really hard to bring him in and we will work as hard as we can to try to improve him and hopefully send him back to Manchester United as a better goalkeeper.

IT IS plain for everyone to see that Reuben Reid is not fully fit yet.
He needs games and also to catch up with the rest of the lads. He is nowhere near the rest of the group in terms of fitness.

It is up to us now. We haven't got that much time, so we want to get him up to full fitness as soon as possible.

He is getting chances, which is good.

But he has had a couple which he unfortunately hasn't put away, and which a fully-fit Reuben Reid would fully expect to bury.