Players still retain belief

Latics’ star player writes every week for Chron Sport

I BELIEVE we had a perfectly good goal disallowed at Preston.

The game was poised at 0-0 and we were playing really well when their goalkeeper Declan Rudd punched the ball into his own goal.

A foul was awarded against Jean-Yves Mvoto — but I was next to him and I don't think he even touched the 'keeper.

I told the referee that if anything, one of Preston's defenders had pushed Jean into the player. He replied that they were "both at it" — to which the only response must be, why give a foul?

This is the kind of fortune going against us just now.

We sat down to watch the DVD of the Preston game yesterday and it was clear there were plenty of positive aspects to take away.

In the first half we really took the game to them and created chances like Jose Baxter's free-kick, the disallowed 'goal' and one I put over the bar.

They came back into it in the second half and the penalty was a typical break against us. It was rightly awarded, though.

After that I pulled another shot wide because I had to strike early — a defender was closing me down. The ball wouldn't drop quickly enough, though I should have done better.

The second goal came as we were pushing to level the game in added time.

The gaffer told us that he felt sick after the loss. He was also told by Preston's coaching staff that we will be fine.

Everyone knows we shouldn’t be where we are in the table. But we are there, and it’s very frustrating.

It was particularly disappointing as the Preston game was one of our fixtures in hand.

But we do have another – and as we showed overall, we still have confidence and belief in each other as a group that we can get out of trouble.