Latics boss Paul Dickov has responded to Chairman Simon Corney's outburst at his teams poor start to the season. Corney had publicly stated, “It is not the manager’s fault. I have seen them train and I know what goes on. But it does not translate onto the pitch and it is not good enough and he knows that. It is horrible to watch. There is no entertainment and no value and I don’t blame the crowds for staying away. Why would you come and watch that? Our crowds are currently mid-table League Two – Stockport get more than us and they are in the Blue Square Premier. I think people are bored of Oldham Athletic and something has to change. The second half against Walsall was horrendous. I don’t care about the mistake – they were a poor team and we should have been well out of sight by then but we looked shattered. We need to find a solution quickly.”
In an effort to diffuse the situation the diplomatic Dickov told the Manchester Evening News that he was shocked but he vowed to put things right. He responded with, “He owns the club and he has every right to have his say but I must say it was a little bit of a shock because I spoke to him on Monday before he went to New York and there was no indication that was coming out. Simon funds the club. He backs me and he backs the team and he has every right to say what he wants to say.”“What I will say is that we have a lot of young players in the squad and, when things aren’t going as well as they should be, they need to be backed. The players know they have not performed. Fitness for me has never been an issue. The players work ever so hard and in the matches against MK Dons and Stevenage we finished stronger. I know they are statistics but they do show that we have run further than the teams we are playing. The one thing the players are is together. They know how they can perform. We have a good team spirit. I know we are not playing as well as we should but you take two individual errors out and we are sitting with four points. We know we can pick up points and we are going to Portsmouth on Saturday.”Source: FOOTYMAD
