On the bright side

Always look on the bright side of life, as Eric Idle and Monty Python once sang and frankly that’s a line that a lot of Latics fans need right now.

A draw against Oxford wasn’t the worst result on Tuesday, coming off the back of a disappointing draw at Cheltenham probably didn’t help but some of the reaction on and off line post match was difficult to square with our position in the table.

There’s a video doing the rounds of abuse dished out towards Tendayi Darwika after Oxford scored their wonder goal on Tuesday. Considering he was playing out of position and not even at fault for the goal it’s a galling watch. I wonder whether the lad shouting the abuse would be as brave to say that to Tendayi’s face.

We’re talking about the captain of a team unbeaten since October, one of the saviours of the side last season who helped to keep us up and someone who always gives his all to the badge. The abuse in that video is so out of proportion it’s laughable.

Two disappointing results in the last week, no doubt about it.

Looking at the next few weeks on paper Cheltenham and Oxford were arguably the more winnable of those matches but two draws to extend our unbeaten run to twenty matches and nearly four months does not constitute a crisis.

A blip? Perhaps but not a crisis, I was as frustrated as anyone on Tuesday. The start we made to the match was slow and lethargic but following a change in shape after Oxford’s goal it was one of our better performances in recent weeks.

Latics could and should have had all three points if it wasn’t for a mixture of the woodwork and outstanding goalkeeping.

Karl Robinson, not shy of an outlandish claim or two in his time declared that we were the best team in the league and his side were lucky to get a point. I suppose in some ways he’s correct.

Oxford are one of the better footballing sides in the division so it was surprising to see them resort to spoiling tactics as early as the midway point of the first half.

Yes it’s a game we could and should have won, as against Cheltenham but there’s another 23 sides who would swap places with us right now, the next few weeks are going to be as tough as they come. We’re going to be tested more than any other period this season.

If the fixture congestion wasn’t bad enough the fact that we’re facing the top six throughout that congestion means that there’s going to have to be squad rotation. There’s simply no other way of getting through the fixture backlog.

With Jamie McGrath, Glenn Rea and the already arrived Josh Magennnis ready the squad is looking as strong as it has done. We’re gonna need every body over the next few weeks.

Get behind them and show your appreciation, they deserve it.

Sean Livesey

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