Grinding out results

It’s looking better isn’t it?

Latics travelled to Huddersfield on Saturday happy to be in to the hat for the FA Cup third round but not exactly buoyed by the performance against Barrow last time out.

A conservative line-up in the Pennines saw Christian Saydee as Latics only recognised striker but you wouldn’t have known that with how Latics started on the front foot.

Though Huddersfield should have been down to ten minutes within 30 seconds as Huddersfield’s Murray Wallace escaped with a yellow card and a ticking off after a horror challenge.

How many times has that happened to Latics this season? Plenty the answer.

More salt was rubbed in to the wounds when the aforementioned Wallace went on to score Huddersfield’s opener against the run of play after 34 minutes.

If only the referee had been brave enough to follow the rule of the law, we could have been talking about a very different result.

But let’s not look back, despite falling behind Latics came out all guns blazing in the second half and the improving Raphael Borges Rodrigues scored his first goal for the club to give Latics the equaliser they not only needed but deserved.

Rodrigues was a constant menace in the second half and nearly put Latics ahead when his shot from the corner of the box hit the cross bar.

Latics pushed hard for a winner but also defended well, which was the most pleasing aspect of the afternoon.

I would have liked to have seen Paul Mullin introduced alongside Dara Costelloe, I know Mullin is struggling for game time but he’s a goalscorer and in a side struggling to score goals I thought he was deserving of more than the 90 seconds he received.

It’s now ten unbeaten for Ryan Lowe’s side; it isn’t a pretty watch at times but that ability to grind out results will stand us well over the coming months.

The key now is for Latics to start turning chances into goals and draws in to wins. It isn’t rocket science but it’s also the most difficult part of football as Shaun Maloney and co found out last season.

It’s not an easy festive season by any stretch of the imagination and it will give us an idea of where we’re heading to in the New Year.

Will that destination be the upper echelons of the table or the lower reaches? We’ll soon find out, starting with the return of pantomime villain Ian Evatt on Saturday and his Blackpool side.

I’m unsure if Ian’s time away from Horwich has lessened his ego but I’ll be absolutely delighted if Latics manage to keep up their record against the man in this latest Lancashire derby.

Speaking of Lancashire derbies, a big hand to Discovery Plus who decided we were more deserving of TV coverage in the FA Cup third round than Exeter City who happened to draw Manchester City at the Etihad.

Meaning that what would could have been a bumper away following at Deepdale will no doubt be diminished by a Friday night post rush work to get up the M6 or across the West Coast Mainline.

Still I’m sure all those Discovery Plus viewers will be looking forward to Ryan Lowe’s return to Preston.

Sean Livesey

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