Unlucky exit from Carling Cup

14 August 2010 00:49
Dickov - "I have told the lads I am proud of them" The Latics were very unlucky to exit the Carling Cup at Scunthorpe United and manager Paul Dickov heaped praise on his team after the defeat. He said, “Yes, I am disappointed to have lost, but I have told the lads I am proud of them. I thought we were excellent and bossed it for long periods of the game. The players gave their all and I am delighted with them. The players are disappointed because they felt they could have won, but Scunthorpe are a good team. Their manager admitted they were holding on at the end which is a measure of how well we did.”“I thought they were excellent. I have said from day one that if I can get a team out there that will give their all from start to finish, I will be happy with them. As much as we are disappointed, we pick ourselves up and we go again in training on Thursday. We had Crommy at 17 years old, Djeny 18 and then you look across the midfield at Dale Stephens, Dean Furman and Lewis Alessandra. They are all young kids, but they are enthusiastic and their work ethic is great. I just want them to realise how good they can be, as I don’t think they quite believe it themselves yet. It is hard to do it for 90 minutes every game, but when we were on the front foot we looked a very good team. There were a few skirmishes at the end. Being picky, we were disappointed with the goals we conceded and to get beaten. But we did more than enough to win the game and bossed it for long periods against a very good team.” “We should have had a penalty in the first half. Their centre half was bent so far over Dean Kelly his knuckles were on the floor, yet a foul was given against Dean. It happens, but with no disrespect to Nigel Adkins or Scunthorpe we still thought we should have won the game.”

Source: FOOTYMAD