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Interviews

Hamer: "Massive Boost To Our Confidence"

29 January 2020

Interviews

Hamer: "Massive Boost To Our Confidence"

29 January 2020

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Latics managed to inflict a 3-1 defeat on Mansfield Town with Tom Hamer scoring one of the goals and the right-back gave his thoughts on the game.

The youngster claims that the lads have worked tirelessly on the training ground in order to turn these draws into wins.

"I thought that all the team played well as you can see we've been working hard in training and we've been working on how to play out from the back and play a bit better football than we did at the weekend against Salford City because we didn't really play out and we just lumped it forward, but I thought that the game plan that we had worked this time round.

"Obviously, it's a massive win and it just gives the boys a massive boost to our confidence. The last four games we've drawn which shows we've been hard to beat, but we just haven't had that clinical edge to finish the opposition off. However I think we did that against Mansfield. It's disappointing to concede right at the end, but it's just how it goes at least we got the win.

"We were on the front foot from the start. The gaffer likes to press from the front and I think we did that and the performance showed that."

Hamer scored his second goal of the season and gave an insight into what happened for him to find the back of the net.

"I wasn't even ready for the corner, Wheatz [David Wheater] was telling Jonny [Smith] to stop and not take it, but I'd seen the space and I weren't actually marked so I ran into the space and gave it a little touch with the outside of the foot, hit the post and went in."

After the game, Head Coach Dino Maamria gathered the players on the pitch for a team talk and the defender believes it helps the lads get a tighter bond.

"I don't think there's anything to it, I just think it's getting the lads together and getting the team spirit up and obviously after the game it's just a little confidence booster for the lads especially now we've won. Yeah, it's just getting the lads together and keeping us as a team close together which I think is a good thing."

The 20-year-old expressed his delight to play alongside captain David Wheater in the Latics backline and explains how much of an influence he has had on him.

"Wheatz is an experienced centre-half, he played in the Premier League, Championship, League One and Two so he's played in every league notching up hundreds of games.

"It's good to play next to him because he gives you advice with his experience and he talks to you and obviously Pidge [Carl Piergianni] has come in and impressed with most recently Cam [Borthwick-Jackson] as well, he started for the first time and I think we're building a strong defence.

"Even the players who aren't starting like Zak [Mills] and Alex [Iacovitti], everyone's on the same page. We work on defending quite a lot in training so I think it shows in our last five games where we've conceded only four goals, two of which were soft penalties compared to the losses before. It would be better to keep a clean sheet of course, but it's showing vast improvements.

"I'm 20-years-old still and I've played every game bar not starting two matches against Bradford City and Blackburn Rovers, but other than that I've played every other game and at my age there's nothing better than you can do, so personally as a goal for me it's good."

Hamer discussed how much of a boost the signing of Danny Rowe was for the squad and praises his performances for Latics so far which has directly seen an upturn in form.

"I think Rowey [Danny Rowe] coming in has given us more options upfront, obviously he scored his goal against Salford and creates chances and you can see he's got it in him.

"He scored 30+ goals in the last two seasons, I know it wasn't in the Football League but it shows that he can score goals and with Jonny [Smith] staying, you know he'll get a goal as well so it's a bonus having them in the team, we're looking strong in every area now."


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