Point gained in adversity underlines fighting spirit

Latics’ assistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
FILIPE Morais should not have been sent off against Walsall. It was simply not a red card.

What it definitely was, however, is one of a catalogue of errors from the match officials.

Warren Feeney's goal early in the game was given offside, but it was perfectly good and should have stood; we should have had a stonewall penalty for handball that wasn't given; and the sending-off was a yellow card offence at best.

Unfortunately, it is these refereeing decisions that have cost us an extra two points.

We weren't brilliant on the day, but we kept at it even when we were a man down.

That bit of desire that shone through was epitomised by Jason Lowe, who has been excellent and deserves a special mention.

He got exactly what he deserved with that terrific equalising goal late in the game at Boundary Park.

Overall, the quality of our play wasn't great. We kept going, though — especially after we had been reduced to 10 men — and probably got what we deserved in the end.

Three days earlier at Exeter, we conceded two sloppy first-half goals when there was nothing really in the game.

The 2-0 defeat was a poor result, which came from a poor performance.

Our side had a lack of experience in the Easter fixtures and it showed. Decision-making was poor and the quality on the ball was similar in both games.

But you have to look at the average age of our side compared to that of the teams we were up against and I think that is where the answers lie.

Against Exeter, our defenders were up against Jamie Cureton; against Walsall it was Jon Macken.

The substitutes they were bringing on had also been around the block a bit.

We brought Warren Feeney on at Exeter and he started against Walsall. Other than him, though, there wasn't much experience in our ranks.

Looking at our opponents tomorrow, I think Swindon have it tough in that every time they get decent players they sell them straight away.

They did it the season before when they sold Simon Cox, then they let Billy Paynter go and this season they lost Charlie Austin.

These are really big players in the team and it is so difficult to keep finding capable replacements.

Last season they were in the League One play-off final against Millwall and this year they have been relegated.

The bad results lie in the fact that they don't seem to give their managers money to replace those players.

If you don't keep investing in talent you will struggle and Swindon, who were relegated last week, are proof of that.