Test holds no fears

The Latics goalkeeper writes every week for Chron Sport


THE WIDER world of football is starting to wake up to what is happening here at SportsDirect.com Park.

If we win tomorrow at Bristol, the spotlight will be shone on the club with greater intensity.

As players, it is important to realise we are involved in a building process. Each week brings very different challenges and there is no more difficult one than playing the league leaders.

We are quietly confident going into the game. We managed to get a point there last season with James Dayton getting the goal in a 1-1 draw.

There is a lot of history between the two clubs: it was great to hear that our fans had snapped up all the available tickets by Tuesday afternoon. I'm sure they will create an atmosphere just as those supporters in the Chaddy End did against Bradford.

It makes a big difference and we feed off it, hopefully putting on a show the fans enjoy. That's what we are paid to do.

That Bradford game was proof of the old cliché: goals change games.

We probably should have got that third goal in the first half which would surely have set us up for a comfortable win.

We knew they would come at us hard in the second half and we stood up to it, winning the game by keeping a clean sheet.

It wasn't a surprise that they came at us physically, with Jon Stead and James Hanson operating up front. A tippy-tappy game was the last thing anyone expected.

We said goodbye to Paul Murray last week as he left to become the new manager at Hartlepool.

Paul was here when I came to the club first time round as a player, and he is someone I know very well and respect.

I was sad to see him go, but it is a great opportunity at a club he knows well. I’ll be keeping an eye on his results and hope he can turn things round there.