No room for quitters

DAVID MELLOR gets in a shot against Tranmere earlier in the season and may well start against Rovers again following the injury to Paul Black.

Latics’ assistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
IT is not like an Athletic team to throw in the towel, but that is exactly what several of our players did in the 5-0 defeat at MK Dons.

It was our worst performance of the season. Too many of them simply did not turn up on the day, which is bitterly disappointing.

I think it was clear for all to see that as soon as the second goal went in, a handful of the playersvirtually gave up.

We as a staff can accept defeat when the lads have gone out there and given 100-per-cent.

But that did not happen at MK Dons and we paid the price.

While it is fair to say that every time we have asked for a reaction we have received one, it is not good that we have to keep asking.

On a more positive note, the reserves’ highly impressive 3-2 win at Burnley this week has given us food for thought, as it contained several senior players.

Matt Smith caught the eye with two goals. It did him plenty of good to see his name on the scoresheet and he will look to build on that if called upon in the near future.

Reuben Reid got a valuable 60 minutes under his belt and didn’t feel a reaction afterwards.

And David Mellor also played a lot better than he had been, which could not be better timing for us because our first choice left-back, Paul Black, is currently injured.

There is not a great deal of room for manoeuvre because the injury list is starting to pile up again, so we need to use our squad wisely, especially with so many fixtures coming up.

Several of the boys are playing and training with niggles, which prevents them from reaching optimum fitness levels.

Tomorrow’s opponents Tranmere are similar to us — hard-working with a sprinkling of good footballers, so I expect a tight match.

I think it is going to boil down to who wants three points the most.

We entertain Colchester on Tuesday, the first of five ‘Golden Ticket’ games in which fans can watch us for a heavily-reduced price.

Hopefully, we will get a big turn-out. It is difficult to generate a good atmosphere in Boundary Park because there are only three sides, so the more the merrier.