It has been a case of waiting an eternity for a bus and then two coming along together for Latics midfield man Dean Furman.

After waiting until his 44th appearance for Latics before breaking his goalscoring duck last Saturday, Furman scored in successive matches following spectacular strikes against Notts County and Charlton.

They were well worth the wait as both were worthy contenders for any goal of the week, month or even season competition.

The goals came as a surprise to Latics manager Paul Dickov who admitted Furman's goalscoring has come as a surprise.

"We have shooting practice after training and Dean usually fails to hit the target, never mind scores," he joked.

Furman confirmed this saying: "We did shooting in training the day before the Charlton game and mine was awful.

"Some of the lads have been getting on my back asking why I do shooting because it is so bad.

"We do a lot of extra work on shooting and luckily it is starting to pay off for me.

"I am happy with my goals. We are playing with more freedom this season so hopefully the goals will come.

"In four games so far this season, Dale Stephens and myself have scored four goals from midfield which is probably more than we got in the whole of last season. We are delighted with it."

Furman pointed out it is a measure of how far Latics have come that they are disappointed to have left Charlton with only one point.

He explained: "I think we would have been happy with a point before the game, but over the course of the match we deserved all three.

"We worked really hard, passed the ball well and showed character to hang in there when we were reduced to 10 men."

Furman added there were no more hair-raising bets this weekend.

Chris Taylor had his head shaved last week after saying he would do that if Furman found the net against Notts County.

"I think the boys are fearing me with my long-range shooting so there was no bets like that this weekend," he mused.