It’s time for cool heads and patience

Latics’ assistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
PATIENCE is key when it comes to Athletic at the moment.

There is no point in us panicking and getting carried away by the two results we have had so far.

We are a work in progress and it will take a little bit of time for the players to gel.

In four weeks' time, for example, young Matt Smith will be burying the sort of chances he headed on to the crossbar on Tuesday night against Carlisle in the Carling Cup.

The fact he didn't find the net basically boiled down to him being tired.

Matt still hit the woodwork with both of his headed chances but when he is up to speed playing professional football week-in, week-out, at an intensity he is not used to, I am sure he will bury them.

It is going to take time for him and ideally he wouldn't be thrust into the limelight so quickly. But he has come in and done brilliantly for us.

And if you look at James Wesolowski, he started strongly for us against Carlisle and tailed off. But we knew that would be the case, as before he came here he hadn't played in a lot of pre-season games for Peterborough — and it showed.

Carlisle changed their system in the second half to match us up at Boundary Park.

They started to pick up all of the 'second balls' that dropped in midfield and played simple football to their strengths.

We lost our way after half-time. We became less of a goal threat than we had been in the first half and it was another lesson that if you don't take your chances in football, you will pay for it.

They were always going to come back into the game at some stage.

While they couldn't cope with us in the first half, once they made the change you have to give them credit.

Carlisle are a young side just as we are, but they had more experience than we did.

And that has been the difference in the two games so far — when you have that extra know-how, it makes a big difference.

We also had a couple of players struggling for fitness with injuries, which told in the end.

The Sheffield United game was one of two halves, as the old saying goes.

We started well, kept them at bay and got into the game early on. We created a few half-chances and it was pretty much even heading into the changing rooms at half-time.

We had a bit of a lapse from a set-piece shortly after the interval and it meant we lost both our shape and our way for a 15-minute period in which they scored a second.

They showed a little bit of quality that they have and the difference between the sides was one or two of their top players who tilted things in their favour.

I would have thought that if they can keep hold of their best players, they will definitely be one of the favourites to gain promotion to the Championship.

Yeovil tomorrow will be a feisty affair. They will be looking to get points on the board, but we are going there to win — it is as simple as that.

As long as everyone is fit, we will have a good chance. We are not far away from where we want to be and with a little bit of tweaking and hopefully one or two additions, we will be fine.