Chance to redeem ourselves

Latics’ assistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
TOO many of our players simply did not turn up in the 2-1 defeat at Chesterfield in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Area final.

With that in mind, we are relieved to still be in the tie as it could have been a lot worse.

It is always disappointing when you are the architects of your own downfall and that is exactly what happened at the B2net Stadium.

We were glad to enter the half-time interval at 0-0 and hoped to turn things around, but it didn’t work out like that.

Robbie Simpson’s fantastic long-range effort was the one moment of quality on an otherwise poor night for ourselves.

James Tarkowski stepped in at the last moment to replace Zander Diamond at centre-half, after Zander hurt himself in the warm-up. The fact James was the pick of the bunch, despite the fact he has been out of the team for months, tells you everything you need to know about our performance.

He played very well and the display puts him in contention for selection in the upcoming matches.

James was unlucky at the start of the season when he suffered a foot injury, and his comeback was delayed by a broken nose.

He didn’t reach the standard we set until about a week ago, when we decided he might be ready.

He certainly didn’t let anyone down against Chesterfield, and if anyone else rests on their laurels or feels sorry for themselves, decisions can be made quickly and James can find himself in the team.

I suppose the defeat was more frustrating because it came just days after our players did such a good job against the best striker in npower League One, Huddersfield’s Jordan Rhodes.

We didn’t give him a sniff all afternoon in our narrow 1-0 loss, but then the Chesterfield game was a backward step.

However, it’s still all to play for in the second leg in front of what will hopefully be a large and expectant crowd. There is a chance for some of the players to redeem themselves tomorrow when we host Exeter in a return to league action. Whenever we have had a setback the boys have always reacted positively.

I am glad we haven’t had long to wait for another match because I am sure the players just want to get out there and sort themselves out.