Jose pivotal to midweek win

The Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport

LEE Johnson has only been with us for two days, but already he has given us the freedom to go out and play attacking football.

The new manager wants us to score a minimum of two goals per game. And he is big on transitions. When we lose possession, the closest man to the opponent with the ball closes him down while everyone else gets back quickly into shape.

Perhaps we had been lacking the confidence to make the sort of runs we produced against Hartlepool.

Now we have to maintain our levels against Shrewsbury and pull another team down into the relegation mix.

I feel I have been training really well over the past two or three weeks and have been champing at the bit to start. It has been very frustrating watching from the bench.

There have been no repercussions over my injury problems and I have been feeling good. Luckily, the new manager saw enough in the last four or five games to give me a start against Hartlepool.

On his first day he said he understood the frustration I was experiencing, but it was important to stay cool as there were times when I was risking a yellow card or even a red.

For the game on Tuesday, he asked me to play on the left side. He knows I prefer to be going through the middle but he wanted me to do a job for the team.

I was disappointed with a number of sloppy passes I produced. But I was delighted with my goal. The first goal against Hartlepool was so important, and it gave us confidence.

The quality of our football in the second half didn't quite match up, but it is a good sign considering we won 3-0 and had plenty of other chances to score.

Jose seemed to really enjoy himself on Tuesday.

Speaking to him after the Bournemouth game, he was more upset than anyone about his penalty that was saved.

But he was pivotal against Hartlepool, scoring once and setting up two.