Our chance to make amends — and pocket the prize

Chris Taylor: strong performance

Latics’ asistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
THE most positive aspect of our 0-0 home draw with Exeter City in npower League One was the fact we defended well and kept a clean sheet.

We were solid at the back throughout the match. The only panic came when the visitors introduced dangerman Daniel Nardiello, but that was only because we were chasing a winner.

Overall, though, I do not think we were at our best. We missed too many chances and simply were not clinical enough when good opportunities came along.

Chris Taylor spurned a good chance but to be fair, he created it out of nothing.

Exeter have been in patchy form and are battling near the bottom of the table, so it was no great surprise to see them come to Boundary Park and sit back, happy with their point.

It was a blow to lose James Wesolowski to a recurrence of his shoulder injury, although we continued to create chances and Taylor (pictured) did a good job when he moved into the centre.

He reacts well wherever he is asked to play.

Attention now turns to the big one on Monday, when we entertain Chesterfield in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, looking to overturn their 2-1 lead from the first leg.

Quite simply, we have to score a goal. With six first-team regulars injured at the moment, we will decide on a gameplan once their availability becomes clear.

For a game like this we are willing to give the players every opportunity to prove their fitness. We intend to leave the decision as late as possible.

We know the carrot — victory by more than one goal takes us through to a final at Wembley, and as I have said before, some of these players might only get one shot at playing there.

In the first leg it was the performance rather than the result that riled me. We didn’t scrap for everything and paid the price. So for the players, this is an opportunity to make up for that disappointing display and achieve the prize.

Hopefully a lot of our fans turn out for the game as their support always spurs us on.