Manager Graham Westley talks to the local press after the final whistle…
“The tiredness was on show today and you can’t have good quality in reserve and not use it when it is evident that your energy levels are lacking. We need to manage our energy this week.”“There are hungry player in the background who wanted to wear a shirt today and we were second in terms of the energy shown.
“Looking at one aspect of our performance today, the energy levels, the ones on the pitch were insufficient and I have to take a long hard look at whether I used the energy in the squad in the right way.
“The penalty decision was a big one for us in a time where we were not playing well. We eared two penalties, one with the handball and secondly with the push in the space of a second.
“I am not one to point to decisions such as the penalty before half time but I have to express concern in the way certain decisions and aspects of the game went.
“They deserved to go ahead, their appetite for the game and their desire was greater than ours and they got the goal they deserved to go ahead.
“As a manager you always have to look at yourself and look at your involvement and if we had picked the right time then we would have won the game.
Substitute striker Akpo Sodje scored on his return from injury late on for North End, as the manager continuing by going into more depth about today’s proceedings at Boundary Park.
In the second half, Oldham winger Cristian Montano scored number two before Dean Furman rounded off the scoring for the Latics.
North End, with a near 2,000 strong following from Lancashire started the game brightly, however suffered a setback when Jose Baxter curled home a 25-yard free-kick.
“We have repeated mistakes from Walsall and that is a poor showing and there are no excuses for that.”
“We had a player dropping off into the hole in front of the back four and the back four staying as a unit instead of going in and squeezing onto it.
“There is a lesson in there that after the Walsall situation there were tactical errors we made all over again.
He said: “On the evidence that was in front of me, the wrong players were on the pitch, there was a lot of energy on the pitch. I backed players to go again and maybe it was too much for them.
The boss admitted he and his players have no excuse for the 3-1 defeat at Oldham, and believes they repeated the same mistakes at Walsall last month.