Oldham Athletic manager Paul Scholes says his team need to become more streetwise if they are going to win certain football matches.
Latics fell victim to another last-minute goal against struggling Morecambe last night, but Scholes insisted his team didn’t perform that bad on the night.
“I'm not too disappointed, I thought we played well we just missed that little bit in the final third I suppose.” He said.
“We conceded an early goal which obviously isn't ideal, and they made it difficult for us.
"They're a decent side, they make it really hard and they're a 'streetwise' team, wasting time and we have to learn, we have to grow up on the pitch and we have to become more streetwise ourselves.
“Like I said, I'm not too disappointed I thought we played well once we got the goal, I thought we'd go on to win it then and unfortunately it didn't happen.”
The Oldham manager made three changes from the side that drew with Crewe Alexandra on Saturday with Jamie Stott, Chris O’Grady and Mo Sylla coming in for Callum Lang, Zak Dearnley and Mohamed Maouche.
Lang was an enforced change due to injury, but Scholes had his reasons for freshening up things elsewhere on the pitch.
"Callum Lang was injured, he would have obviously played if he was fit.”
“He's just a big tight really, I'm hoping he'll be training Thursday, Friday with a view to the Bury game but to be honest we just don't know.
"I wanted to get Mo Sylla in there with the pitch being as it was, and I didn't think we'd have a chance to play as much football and I needed to give him a game because he's trained really well.
“I wanted to give Zak a rest, he's been playing for United's U23s, so he's not played three games in a week before, so I just wanted to give him a rest and save him for the last twenty minutes where I think he could be effective, and I think he did well when he came on.”
On a positive note for Latics, Jose Baxter completed his first 90 minutes since October and grabbed himself another goal.
Scholes recognises the quality that Baxter possesses claiming he is the best football he currently has at his disposal.
“I knew Jose had quality, I thought that was his best game and I thought he was really good for us, everything we seemed to do that was decent came through him.
“He got his goal as well and he looks fit to me, that game will do him good, he's had two hours maybe in the first two games and he's probably our best footballer, so he needs to be on the pitch as much as possible.”
Next up for Latics is a tough trip to high flying Bury on Saturday.
Scholes will only have two days on the training field to get a reaction out of his side and he knows it will be no easy task going to Bury and getting a result.
“We'll have a good look at Bury now, we've already looked at them obviously because we have to prepare a couple of games in advance when you play on Tuesday, Saturday.
“We know what a good team they are, they're probably playing their best football in the league so it's going to be a big challenge for us.
“The players are disappointed in there after the defeat and we have to try and lift them for Thursday, Friday and get ready for a big game Saturday.”