Athletic's success at Leeds will stand for nothing unless they follow up the result with a victory over Cheltenham at Boundary Park on Saturday. Last season their failure was down to losing some unexpected games at home after similar successful road trips. Too many times they fell to competition which, on paper, was inferior. This time around, the Latics have got the perfect start and are joint top of the league so similar slip ups cannot be encountered. Reuben Hazell (pictured) agrees with the statement and suggests that the game will be crucial to Latics' promotion hopes. He told the official website, "When teams go to places like Leeds, the energy levels and performance tend to look after themselves because of the game itself. Now we have to come home and show that same level of performance against Cheltenham, because we'll be back to square one if we draw or lose. If we don't win, we may as well have not gone to Leeds and won."
"These are the kind of home games we need to win because we dropped a lot of points at home last year. With no disrespect to Cheltenham or any other team, if we want to go places this season we have to do well in our home games. If we can be strong and pick up our points at home, as well as having a few away-days like the one at Leeds, then the right ingredients will be there."