Oldham Athletic manager Frankie Bunn admits that his side were second best in the 1-3 defeat to Carlisle United yesterday at Boundary Park.
Goals from as Hallam Hope, Ashley Nadeson and Jack Sowerby condemned Bunn’s team to their third league defeat of the season in a game and left the side 12th in the table.
“The lads are down, I think that’s the first time, certainly result wise, we’ve not been at it.” He said.
“I keep saying we play to win every game, but in reality, that isn’t going to happen and there will be sides that are better than us and Carlisle were better than us today.”
Bunn also took responsibility for the way the team were set up after trying to switch to a 3-5-2 formation.
“I'll take the blame for that result because I tried to change the system and tried to accommodate the people in that system and it didn’t quite work.” He commented.
“I thought we looked a little bit fearful, we looked frightened to get on the ball at times and made unusual errors for us and defensively we made wrong decisions in the wrong areas of the park.”
Yesterday's result was the third defeat this season at Boundary Park, however away from home the side are unbeaten.
Bunn feels his team need to start expressing themselves more when they play at home to turn around the results.
“Maybe we have to be more expressive at home, we get picked off a little bit and I don’t see why we should fear playing here.
“I don’t know whether that has come from last year with some of the players, but it’s something we're going to have to work on and put right.”
Latics will be looking to bounce back when they take on Bradford City in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday night.
Bunn says the International break next week may affect his team selection in midweek.
“It’s a good chance to bounce back and that’s the beauty of football there’s always another game, so we'll dust ourselves down and come back fighting.
“The break we have may have an impact, we'll see how the treatment room is tomorrow and we'll be preparing for Bradford.”