The Latics were knocked out of the FA Cup by a single goal at home by Burton Albion on Saturday. Head Coach Dino Maamria was obviously upset at the lack of progress and the loss of income which could have been provided by a good cup run.
Dino said, “I'm devastated that we lost the tie and I'm bitterly disappointed with the first-half performance, but we were much better second-half. We created a lot of chances in the second-half, but we weren't clinical enough to score. I thought that if scored an equaliser it would've gave us the momentum to go and win the game. But, when we look back at the match it was a game of two halves, first-half we never turned up and I've got to get to the bottom of that. I thought the first-half of last week against Newport County, we were very good and I thought that we addressed that problem, but we've come back and the first 15 minutes we were very flat and gave the opposition a bit of momentum and we were fortunate just to concede one the first-half. Second-half there is only one team in the game and wave after wave and that's what I was asking our players to give and they gave that second-half, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. You've got to give credit to Burton Albion because you can see that they're organised, solid and they know what to do with and without the ball and you can see why they're doing well in League One.”
“I would have been proud if we won the tie, but we didn't win the tie. I've got to look at the whole game and I've got to ask questions about the first-half and the second-half as well because as much as we dominated for the second-half we didn't have the cutting edge to score that equaliser. But everybody that left the stadium after the game will be talking about the big decision that we didn't get late on in the game. I'm baffled by it because I look back at it on the video, a ball in behind with the goalkeeper in no man's land and he misjudged the ball and the ball is going to go above his head for Akpa Akpro to score into an empty net. But the goalkeeper catches the ball outside the box and there is only one decision to be made which we saw against Walsall and the one decision was to be made and that was the goalkeeper had to be sent off. He made it worse by explaining it to me because he said your player didn't have the ball in control, but how are you going to have the ball in control when the goalkeeper has the ball in control with two hands. That doesn't mean that we're going to go on and win the game, but that was a big wrong decision.”
“I dropped my phone when Mohammed Maouche missed his chance and my phone actually went a yard onto the pitch, so I stepped onto the pitch to pick my phone up and I got booked for that. It's funny, but it's not funny, because this had our lives on it and it's a big competition for us and I'm absolutely devastated to lose the game. The ground staff and everybody connected to the football club, they've worked hard the past couple of days to make sure our pitch was in good condition and it was on. The grass was a bit too long but they couldn't get any work on it this week as it's been difficult weather. But it has been a good team effort from everybody, and it shows that the club are getting together. We've only got two forwards and we brought Zak Emmerson as a 15-year-old centre forward, so we knew that we were lacking something there. Unfortunately this time of the year, outside the window, you're not blessed with many options but we've known Akpa for a long time and he's been around a lot of clubs in the past. He's a target man, different from Desire Segbe Azankpo and Scott Wilson and you can see that he's made a difference in the last 15 minutes when he came on and that's what he can add to us.”