The Latics put in a well below par performance as they slipped to a 1-0 home defeat by Hartlepool United on Boxing Day. Manager Paul Dickov described the debacle as being one of the worst displays since he took charge at Boundary Park. The result was their fifth home league defeat of the season and it came against a team who had just suffered four straight defeats which resulted in the sacking of their manager Mick Wadsworth.Dickov commented, “It was disappointing as we had a good crowd of nearly 4,500 and the boys and ourselves let ourselves down. I am not going to hammer them too much as they have been excellent recently, but they let their standards drop and, if you do that, you don't win football matches. In football, you maybe can afford to have two or three players who are not at it, but you cannot have every outfield player. I thought we were poor from start to finish. We didn't play in the opening period and we huffed and puffed in the second. When we do things right we are a good football team. When we don't we look very average as we did today.”“It is no coincidence when I give the boys a day off we don't perform the day after as we have seen before. We worked hard on Friday and Saturday on everything we wanted to do, but it didn't happen for us today so that won't be happening again.”It didn't help by the fact that James Wesolowski got in jured in the first minute and had to go off with a dislocated shoulder. It was during this period of playing with 10 men that Hartlepool stole the lead. It could have been even more in the first half and Dickov admitted that his side was lucky only to be one-goal down at half time. Only Luca Scapuzzi looked like scoring for the home team when he was put through but 'Pool keeper Scott Flinders was adequate enough to stop the effort.The second half was no better as the Latics continued to lose possession in crucial areas of the field. The only scoring chance they created came in stoppage time when Dean Furman was unlucky when his 25 yard effort was caught by Flinders. The players were supposed to be trying to impress the boss in the hope of gaining a starting place in the upcoming FA Cup match at Liverpool but on this showing, with a few exceptions, it would not be out of place to start the reserve side at Anfield.
Source: FOOTYMAD
