Midfield ace Youssouf is such a fast learner

Latics assistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
WE were absolutely delighted to end a run of four successive defeats with a 1-0 victory at Hartlepool.

Despite not hitting the heights of some of our performances this season, it was deserved because we worked our socks off in difficult circumstances, with so many players missing through injury.

It was a good team effort, although I would like to give a special mention to three of the lads.

Reece Brown has been spread around since arriving here, appearing in a number of different positions and I thought he was excellent against Hartlepool at the heart of our defence. He was calm under pressure and read the game very well.

Harry Bunn put in a good shift to help out the midfield and didn’t stop all night.

And what an impact Youssouf Mchangama has made since his recent arrival at the club.

I am so surprised he has been this good this soon, because he is new to English football and the pace and intensity of it is totally different to what he is used to.

But he has slotted straight in and helped his team-mates a great deal.

The win stopped the rot three days after our 3-2 derby defeat at Rochdale. We created a lot of chances throughout the contest and Shefki Kuqi popped up with a ‘once in a lifetime’ strike.

It was undoubtedly the goal of the season and one of those you just knew was flying into the net from the moment he hit it.