Skipper Stephen Warnock insists that United were punished on Boxing Day for not converting their chances and for not keeping the door shut in defence.

United suffered a two goal defeat at home to Wigan and the captain says he and the team will be looking to put things right.

“I thought that we were playing well at the time,” said Stephen. “I thought that we started the game well.

“We were creating chances and putting them on the back foot. But the goal knocked us and sometimes that can happen.

“I thought we reacted well and started the second half positively and we created a number of chances.

“We couldn’t put the ball in but we have got to keep the door shut at the back and we didn’t do that. We were punished for that.

“I think that nine times out of 10, or even 10 times out of 10 that gets cleared on the training pitch. But sometimes it doesn’t go your way.

“I think that Coops has been fantastic since he came in and he has probably been one of the stand-out performers but he didn’t mean to do that. He just tried to stop the cross coming in. But this is something that we will look at as a team and we’ll try to put it right.”

Recent results haven’t gone United’s way but the left-back insists he still confronts games in a confident fashion.

“Personally I haven’t taken a knock in confidence,” added the full-back. “I think that you have always got to be confident going into football matches and if you don’t it comes out on the pitch.

“We try and do things right during the week and get the lads enjoying playing football.

“Hopefully we can try and build the spirit again in the next couple of days.

“We know that results haven’t been great in the last few weeks but we are striving to do better.

“Going into the Wigan game we were confident because I thought that we put in a solid display at Forest and our home form was decent.

“This is something we need to put right.”