Derailed by the Orient express

The Latics assistant mnager writes every week for Chron Sport
THE 1-0 home loss to Leyton Orient hurt because the visitors were hungrier and wanted it more.

Although we did manage to create a couple of good opportunities, our opponents simply outworked us and were on the front foot a lot more than we were.

Orient deserved their win, but we didn’t help ourselves because we played right into their hands.

They flooded the midfield with five men, but we could not combat it.

It is such a shame because we had been on a good run of form and the players were provided with all the relevant statistics before the Orient game.

They knew that a victory could propel us into the top-half of the table and give us plenty of enthusiasm moving forwards. I suppose fatigue was a small factor — nine matches in March is not normal, and playing Saturday and Tuesday for weeks on the bounce can take its toll when there is travelling involved.

That said, the Orient game was at Boundary Park. And when I was a player all I ever wanted to do was play and train. The bottom line is, we played badly and because of that we probably would have been satisfied with a point.

It came after the 1-0 win against Bournemouth, which I believe was our best defensive performance of the season. The Cherries came into the contest towards the end and put us under pressure, but our players stepped up and put their bodies on the line several times to keep a clean sheet.

Next up is a trip to Keith Curle’s Notts County tomorrow.

I played against Keith on a number of occasions — he was a centre-half like me. He was quick, took no nonsense and read the game well, and I must congratulate him on the start he has made since taking the job at Meadow Lane.

They are still in the hunt for a play-off spot so it is bound to be a difficult test. I think the conditions are going to determine the outcome of the match — it is not the best playing surface in the world so we expect them to chuck a lot of high balls at us.

We have to match everything they produce and there is no reason why we cannot come away with a positive result to give everyone a lift.

Finally, it was great to see captain Dean Furman return to action for the reserves in midweek.

We have missed what he brings to the team, in terms of his performance and his personality.

It is good to know he is on the way back.