The Latics stuttered to another home loss, this time at the hands of Millwall, who don't have one of the better away records in the division. The loss once again exposed the Latics inability to score goals. They have the worst strike force in the division and they still seem to play a defensive set up even at home. Instead of punishing teams they sit back and allow the oppostition to take control of the games. Fans are getting increasingly disillusioned. It's no wonder that home crowds are dropping to an embarrassingly low number.
Dave Penney gave his post match wrap up and commented first on the penalty decision that sealed the win for the visitors. He said, "I didn't see it, really. I'm looking at the edge of their box like everyone else and the ball must be 50 yards away. Something has happened in our box with Sean and their lad, he's booked Sean and everyone is amazed he's given a penalty. The video will be looking at the ball - so we'll never know really - I'll go in and speak with the ref but that doesn't change the fact we got beat one-nil, by the penalty."
"Compared to Wednesday its night and day. The players were excellent today, we took the game to them and again it's our Achilles heel of not being able to score and until we start doing that we're not going to win games. We have had three or four clear cut chances again and until we start taking them were not going to be winning. We brought Keigan Parker in and I thought he was a threat behind them, we wanted to play them with pace and he gave us that. We did bring Pawel Abbott off, but that was just because he was feeling a bit stiff and tired - we knew that would be the case after being out for eight weeks."
"You see from the one-on-one and he doesn't quite have the legs yet, all we can do is keep training him and get him games under his belt. Chris Taylor is just like Pav - he needs more time and games now. He's not been fully fit since I got here and we need to get him back. When the forwards tired we wanted some fresh legs, youth, enthusiasm and Ryan Brooke and Tom Eaves gave us that."
Athletic are now seriously entrenched in the relegation battle and unless they can start hitting the net soon they will be favourites for one of the drop places. With Rochdale flying high and Bury putting in another serious promotion push, it would be a shame if the teams swap places at the end of the season.