The Latics failed miserably by failing to take advantage of their 'game in hand' on Tuesday night when Morecambe came to town. It was a dire performance that brought new manager Paul Scholes a trio of results in his first three matches in charge. Instead of nine points and a possible play-off spot the three home matches brought a win, a draw and now a loss which leaves the Latics six points away from the seventh place play-off spot.
Scholes admits that his squad needs to become more 'streetwise' as he says with the last minute winner for Morecambe was a hard pill to swallow for the 4,000 plus fans that graced the stadium. He summed up, “I'm not too disappointed, I thought we played well we just missed that little bit in the final third I suppose. We conceded an early goal which obviously isn't ideal, and they made it difficult for us. They're a decent side, they make it really hard and they're a 'streetwise' team, wasting time and we have to learn, we have to grow up on the pitch and we have to become more streetwise ourselves. Like I said, I'm not too disappointed. I thought we played well once we got the goal, I thought we'd go on to win it then and unfortunately it didn't happen.”
"Callum Lang was injured. He would have obviously played if he was fit. He's just a bit tight really, I'm hoping he'll be training Thursday and Friday with a view to the Bury game but to be honest we just don't know. I wanted to get Mo Sylla in there with the pitch being as it was, and I didn't think we'd have a chance to play as much football and I needed to give him a game because he's trained really well. I wanted to give Zak a rest. He's been playing for United's U23s, so he's not played three games in a week before, so I just wanted to give him a rest and save him for the last twenty minutes where I thought he could be effective, and I think he did well when he came on.”
“I knew Jose [Baxter] had quality, I thought that was his best game and I thought he was really good for us. Everything we seemed to do that was decent came through him. He got his goal as well and he looks fit to me, that game will do him good, he's had two hours maybe in the first two games and he's probably our best footballer, so he needs to be on the pitch as much as possible.”
“We'll have a good look at Bury now. We've already looked at them, obviously, because we have to prepare a couple of games in advance when you play on Tuesday and Saturday. We know what a good team they are. They're probably playing their best football in the league so it's going to be a big challenge for us. The players are disappointed in there after the defeat and we have to try and lift them for Thursday and Friday and get ready for a big game Saturday.”