Notts County 2 Wigan Athletic 3

NOTTS COUNTY
Richardson 64
Bolland 80

Paul Jewell made sweeping changes to the side that started against Stockport at the weekend with only four players on show for the kick off that had began on Saturday.

Goalkeeper John Filan and defender Matt Jackson kept up their ever present run in the team while Jason Jarrett and Gary Teale also started their second game in four days with the latter moving into attack with Andy Liddell.

Scott Green and Peter Kennedy both started the game after both recovering from injury with Kennedy making his first appearance since mid August.

Former Manchester City skipper Richard Edghill was included in Jewell’s side and lined up in a vastly unfamiliar looking defensive line up with Matt Jackson, Paul Mitchell and teenager Leighton Baines, who scored a brace for the youth side at Preston on Saturday, getting his first ever start in the senior side.

The game saw Edghill come up against his old Maine Road team mate Jeff Whitley who signed on loan for his second spell at Meadow Lane last Friday.

The game lived upto expectations with neither side looking that bothered about actually winning and you can probably see more exciting football in the reserves.

The travelling 50 or so Wigan fans were rewarded for their efforts with a goal after only 8 minutes with Scott Green setting up GARY TEALE who stole into the area before hitting a low drive beyond County keeper Steve Mildenhall.

Wigan doubled their lead in the 22nd minute with Andy Liddell, who looks in desperate need of match practice following his 3 game suspension, laying the ball on for GARY TEALE and the former Ayr United player struck home for his second of the night.

Latics seemed to be walking away with the game when JASON JARRETT rose above the County defence to head home for his second goal in a Wigan shirt to make it 3-0.

Notts County manager Bill Dearden made on change during the half time interval as Danny Allsopp was introduced to the action with Paul Heffernan making way for the Australian hitman.

Within a minute of the restart Gary Teale wasted a golden opportunity to secure his hat trick when he broke free down the left of the County area and with only Mildenhall to beat the Scot sliced his shot well wide of the near post.

The home side had one on target minutes later with Michael Brough firing straight at Filan from well outside of the area and former Roosendaal defender Marcel Cas saw his effort deflected over the bar and behind for a corner.

Kevin Nicholson sent the resulting kick over and found the head of IAN RICHARDSON to send the ball just beyond Filan’s reach and into the back of the net to make it 3-1 just after the hour mark.

The longer the game went on the more likely it seemed that County would grab another as they continued to pressurise Wigan and another goal they got.

With the tie approaching the final 10 minutes Allsopp cracked the upright with the ball rebounding only as far as fellow substitute PAUL BOLLAND and the former Bradford City midfielder saw his shot from the edge of the penalty area take a deflection and bobble over the line.

The home side pushed for an equaliser in the final minutes and had me for one worried with extra time and the possibility of penalties looking more and more possible the longer the game continued.

However Wigan hung on and will be in the hat for Saturday’s second round draw which will be made by Soccer AM’s Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain on their show on Sky Sports this coming Saturday morning.