The Latics have won their second piece of silverware in just a week when they beat Rochdale 3-2 on penalties at Boundary Park. It was their second consecutive 0-0 game, which is worrying, but the result just makes manager John Sheridan more determined to bring in a new striker (signing or loan) before next Saturdays big kick off against Ronnie Moore's Tranmere team at Prenton Park. Chris Swailes, Chris Porter and Sean Eardley were successful with their spot kicks and ironically it was Les Pogliacomi's save from ex-Latics midfielder Ernie Cooksey that won the game for the Latics.A disappointed Sheridan told the official website, "I am disappointed with the performance. It wasn't our best game. However, I'm not worried, we've kept two clean sheets in a row. I thought the first half was OK but we didn't play with any tempo. We'll definitely need work next week. If we don't play at a higher tempo at Tranmere, we'll get battered. Teams are going to come here and play a high-tempo game, and we have to do the same. We did some good things, but seemed to lose it in the final third."
"The trialist came off not because he did anything wrong. It was simply because I wanted to give all the strikers half an hour and play Ports (Chris Porter) and Paul Warne together, but I was forced to bring the trialist on early because Chris Hall came off injured. I think pre-season's gone OK overall. We've just got to continue to work on how we're going to play. People switch off at this level sometimes, perhaps that's why they play at this level, and the players need to continue learning and taking things on board. These pre-season games aren't that important, but next Saturday's is. Come the Tranmere game, we'll be ready."