Athletic’s Paul Green has paid tribute to the Latics remarkable achievement of staying alive in League One for the second successive season under John Sheridan.
Green said, “Young lads can get themselves down when they lose a game, but we try to keep up the morale in the changing room. You work hard on the training ground and don't get down over one game. You aim to bounce back and the experienced players in there - myself, Peter Clarke, Brian Wilson and Anthony Gerrard - have been through a lot and in getting that experience across, hopefully it has helped. Clarkey has been amazing all season as a skipper. To finish it off like that, against the team where he had that bad incident [Rochdale], I am sure he enjoyed the moment.”
“I would love to stay. Obviously, we didn't know if we would be safe or not and I don't know what the gaffer and the chairman have spoken about in regards to next year. But I am sure we will find that out soon. It was a fresh team at the start of this season. The gaffer has since brought in some good loan and permanent signings. Aaron Amadi-Holloway up front has given us a big, strong presence there and with the loan signings of Rob Hunt at left-back and Aiden O'Neill it gave us a bit of extra spark that we needed. Anthony Gerrard and Peter Clarke are a strong partnership and Ollie Banks has stood out as well. I think it's a strong nucleus to build from for next year. There have been some tough games and we have taken some good points from them. In a way, it's a great result against Rochdale in terms of not losing again. I don't really like celebrating staying up. It's not really what I have done in my career, to be honest. But the gaffer has told us that to get from where we were to where we are now, it's a great achievement. Looking to next year, it will hopefully be a totally different story.”