John Sheridan has called on his players to finish their chances and fire Latics to a crucial three points against Northampton on Saturday.

Describing the clash with the Cobblers as a "must-win" game, Sheridan has been concentrating on ensuring his players sharpen up and finish the chances they have been creating but not converting.

That trend was evident in each of three consecutive away trips at Cheltenham, Huddersfield and Doncaster, particularly at the Keepmoat Stadium where Athletic spurned a host of chances before conceding three second-half goals.

Now the Boundary Park chief has identified three points as essential from Saturday's game, and see Latics' form in front of goal as crucial to achieving them:

"Our problem is we're not scoring goals, and we need to start doing that," said Shez, whose side lie just a place outside the League One relegation zone with ten games played so far.

"We're creating chances but need to be ruthless.  Even though we conceded three the other night I don't think we've looked too bad defensively, and we seem to be creating and then conceding cheaply.

"I've got a lot of strikers coming back and competing for places up front now, and I want them all on top form because I could pick any two or three from the bunch."

 Stuart Gray's Cobblers travel to Boundary Park still searching for their first away win of the season, but have started the campaign in fine fettle at Sixfields, with five wins from six home outings.

"Northampton are a good side with some big, strong players and they're a handful on their day," said Shez of the visitors, whose haul of 16 points from 12 games is good for 12th position in League One.  "But we're at home and for me we must win the game.  Nothing less than three points will do -- we must win our home games.

"I will keep on telling the lads that we can do that, and I believe we can beat anyone in this league when we're on form.  But we've definitely got to do three points on Saturday."

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