Morsy: '˜Lap of honour' will add Posh spice!

Latics suffered their second of only three league defeats all season at the ABAX Stadium four months ago.

Despite deservedly leading 1-0 at the break, Latics paid the penalty for failing to make the most of their first-half dominance, and Posh ended up good value for their win.

Scenes of jubilation followed the final whistle, both on and off the field, as the Posh players celebrated the club’s 1000th victory in the Football League with a bang.

Latics boss Paul Cook made reference to it more than once in the following weeks, and Morsy says it’s certainly not been forgotten.

When asked whether it would be discussed in the camp, Morsy admitted: “I think so, yeah. It was a bit premature to be doing that.

“But it just goes to show what that win meant to them.

“If we’d have managed to beat Bournemouth last weekend, would we have been doing a lap of honour?

“Probably not. But each to their own.”

Morsy in particular will be champing at the bit to get stuck into Posh, having missed the corresponding fixture through suspension.

”I’d picked up five yellows by then, probably a little bit quickly to be fair,” he mused.

“Whenever you’re playing one of your rivals, you always want to be involved. But it wasn’t to be.”

Latics will go into the game in good spirits, having come within seconds of beating Bournemouth in the FA Cup last weekend – a draw Morsy says flattered the Premier League outfit.

“It was a fantastic performance, in the first half especially,” the Egyptian ace added.

“They made changes, bringing on some top players who made a difference.

“But even then we created some chances to put the game to bed, before the big talking point, the Ivan Toney ‘penalty’.

“Being so close to it, I thought it was a penalty, and it was one of them that you do see given sometimes.

“The thing is, if it was at the other end, for Bournemouth, I’m 100 per cent convinced it would have been given.

“But on the whole it was a good performance, and we can’t help but feel disappointed not to have won.

“We genuinely went there thinking we were going to win.

“We didn’t go there trying to have a go, or to give a good account of ourselves.

“We genuinely expected to win, and we came within 90 seconds of doing so.”