Latics boss Frankie Bunn was pleased with the fight-back shown in the second half against Everton U21s after they were 2-0 down at the half at Boundary Park. Peter Clarke, Ishmael Miller and Jonathan Benteke got the decisive goals.
Bunny commented, "It was embarrassing. The first half performance is something I certainly don't want to be associated with. My players won't be like that again, that was just a shocking first half performance and albeit we've hit the post, the bar and have had a one-on-one, it looked like it wasn't going to happen but we've conceded two sloppy goals. We've got some young players and they need to grow up quick now because that is where we are. We have congratulated them on the way, we've said how young they are but that goes by the way now, they are playing mens' football and they have to be men.”
“It was the harsh words at half time and a few truths. They responded and that's all we can take from that because I don't want to be associated with anything like that ever again. I keep saying we're going to have our ups and downs and the second half performance was very good but we shouldn't have been in that position. Again, no disrespect to Everton but if you are playing a better side it is very difficult to come from two goals down and we were in that same situation on Saturday and we kept plugging away but it wasn't to be. It's a cup competition and we want to go as far as we can so we'll see how it pans out and see who we get in the next round. It can galvanise you, who knows this could be the start of something and hopefully that is the case. We certainly need a little bit of luck and we need to keep improving and as long as we do that we'll be fine.”