Latics host Accrington Stanley in the Leasing.com Trophy tonight and Head Coach Dino Maamria gave his thoughts ahead of the game.
The Head Coach wants to develop his players mentally and physically to make sure his side stay switched on until the 90th minute.
“For about 70 minutes we were in control, there is no denying that there's an issue with the last 20 minutes of games this is before my time as well.
“If you look at our record since the start of the season, we've been conceding a lot of goals late on and there is always a reason for that, it's not a coincidence.
“I've got to strengthen the players' physically and mentally because that's what it's down to, physically first because that will prepare them to run harder and get stronger as the game goes on and mentally I think is the most important one because you need to think are you going to sit deep or are you going to go on the front foot and I think that's where I need to shift the mentality of the players and I've got to work them physically as well to last the 90 minutes.” He commented.
“I said it at the end of the game on Saturday, I think I'm someone who wants to make sure that we play for the fans sometimes we pay rubbish for them for 75 minutes and you have a good 15 minutes at the end of the game and fans go back home happy.
“Obviously I don't want to play rubbish for 75 minutes because we want to be good throughout the game but I think the end of the game is really important because we want to make sure that the fans go home happy and I've got to make sure I've got a team that's physically and mentally strong to finish games off."
Maamria is determined to progress further in the Leasing.com Trophy and claims he’s putting out a strong starting XI.
"I see it firstly as a good chance for us to progress to the next round, we need that, and we need to win because winning is good for any environment.
“I'm not sure what John Coleman's priority is and I'm not sure what type of team it's going to be, it's always difficult I've found in my experience in this competition you prepare against a team you don't know who you're going to face.
“But, all I've got to do is prepare our team, I'm picking a strong eleven as strong as it can be as I've got to be mindful of Saturday as well and we have a few sore bodies after the game at the weekend so I've got to be mindful of that, but our intention tomorrow is to win the game without a shadow doubt."
The 48-year-old believes tonight is a chance for players to stake their claim to be in the starting XI on Saturday against Mansfield Town.
"If they get the chance tomorrow they've got to make sure that they impress me and it's a clean slate for everyone some of them played league games and some of them played last week behind closed doors against Burnley in a friendly and maybe one or two will play tomorrow.
“Those players have got to do is if I give them a shirt they've got to make sure they keep it and I'm open-minded about everybody and I want winning players, positive people and hard-working people around me and if those players give me that I'm happy to pick them every week."
Gary Woods, Zak Mills and Johan Branger-Engone all missed the game against Cheltenham Town at the weekend through injury and Maamria provided an update on their situation.
"I think that we have a few missing against Accrington Stanley, Branger-Engone did his chord in training so he'll be out for two or three weeks probably.
“Woods is touch and go for this weekend and we're not going to risk him against Accrington and Mills is another one who I'm not going to risk tomorrow maybe he has a chance for the weekend and we've got two international lads as well Zeus De La Paz and Desire Segbe Azankpo will be missing tomorrow.
“It's a blow for us but hopefully that'll be an opportunity for someone else to come in and grab the shirt."