Read back the manager's thoughts following Saturday's reverse to the Latics
Despite dominating proceedings at the SportsDirect.com Park, Wanderers found themselves on the wrong side of a 1-0 scoreline come full time against Oldham on Saturday afternoon.
The home side had been reduced to ten men when Michael Ngoo saw red for a second bookable offence in the second period before the Latics stole the lead.
And speaking following the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered these points…
On the performance of his side as a whole…
I thought we controlled the game for long periods, especially in the first half when we were excellent. In the second half, we’ve conceded a goal which came from what was probably their only opportunity of the game.
It was a bit of a freakish goal where Mark has palmed it out and it’s hit Jay before going into the back of the net.
We’ve had enough chances today though, but the result is ultimately down to us not being clinical enough and perhaps a little bit of bad luck alongside some heroic defending from Oldham.
On our three remaining games…
We still have three huge cup finals to go. Even with the teams below us playing on Monday, the worst case scenario come kick-off for us on Tuesday will be that we will be still in second place and a point ahead of them.
It’s still well and truly in our hands. It could be so much better had we got the result we probably deserved today, but it’s not.
We’ve now got to dust ourselves down as a group and the supporters as well.
We’ve had some terrific wins of late and we’ve enjoyed them, but now we’ve got to take this defeat together on the chin and come out fighting on Tuesday night.
And on the superb backing of the club’s supporters…
They were amazing once again and I’m hurting for them as much as I am for myself and the players.
Like I said though, in football life isn’t always easy and it doesn’t always go according to plan.
We’ve got to fight tooth and nail though to make sure we get ourselves over the line.
In the dressing room afterwards, I basically told the lads that they just need to pick themselves up again and go again on Tuesday.
When you look at the effort we put in today and the way we dealt with a very difficult pitch, I don’t think we could have done a great deal more.
We had many attacking players out there in the end to try and get back in the game alongside throwing David Wheater up top.
Sometimes when you do that, you lose a bit of shape and structure so it’s not always the most ideal way of trying to get back into a game, but we gave everything we could and it just wasn’t to be.
They never said it would be easy though and if you get promotion from any league, you’ve got to earn it and we’ve got to go again on Tuesday.
The fans know what is at stake right now and their support is so important, as it will prove to be in our last three games.