Rovers back at Boundary Park
As Latics prepare to meet Doncaster Rovers for the third time in the space of one month, Paul Dickov delivered an upbeat message in the wake of Saturday's unfortunate 4-1 defeat at Yeovil Town.Rovers return to Boundary Park three and a half weeks after they were beaten 3-1 by Latics in the second round of the FA Cup with Budweiser.
Latics manager' said: "We will go into the game knowing that we can beat them.
"We have to take positives from Saturday in an attacking point of view, but need to tighten up defensively."
Dickov was referring to the fact Latics were 2-1 down at Yeovil with 13 minutes left and had their opponents on the retreat before their late collapse.
Latics' manager believes it will be a good game on Boxing Day given the two previous meetings which has seen both sides record one win.
He said: "We showed when Doncaster came here that we can play good football and also score goals.
"There is no way we will go into the game thinking it will be exactly the same as the cup tie.
"It will be completely different and I know Dean (Saunders) will be hurting from the defeat here."
Latics' manager added that Doncaster have a number of players back who were unavailable for the cup game.
Top scorer David Cotterill and striker Iain Hume were both suspended while centre forward Billy Paynter was ruled out through injury so they will have considerably more firepower.
He said: "They are a team up there at the top, and rightly so, because they have a lot of good players.
"I know they have not won in the last four games, but before that they had been on a fantastic run."
Dickov added that previous results have shown that the form book goes out of the window in League One in the current campaign.
He continued: "On any given day, any team can beat each other. They will be looking to get a win after some disappointing results.
"We will go into the game on the back of two poor results so we will see two teams who want to win the game."
Dickov added that Latics will be looking to make a better start than in the cup game when they fell behind in the fourth minute.
"As the home team, we will want to start fast and start well," he said.
Dickov pointed out it is important Latics return to winning ways following back-to-back defeats against Swindon Town and Yeovil.
He said: "We have two home games coming up and we need to be looking to win both of them.
"We need to get back into a position when we are not looking over our shoulders, but looking upward."
And finally there was a big thank you from Dickov to the supporters.
He said: "I know it is tough, especially over the Christmas period, but the support we get is fantastic.
"I would like to wish all our fans a happy Christmas."