AFC Fylde 1 Wigan Athletic 0

Wigan Athletic tasted defeat at AFC Fylde by the only goal - but boss Paul Cook will have gone away with more than a few positives.
Sam MorsySam Morsy
Sam Morsy

Fielding virtually different XIs in both halves, Cook saw his more senior line-up dominate the opening stanza and show some decent passages of play.

After the break, a virtual Development Squad then more than held their own, with several Academy products giving the gaffer a timely nudge about possible inclusion in the weeks and months ahead.

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Latics could and should have led when one of the stand-put performers, Charlie Jolley, somehow missed an open goal from the penalty spot.

And the visitors were punished when Danny Rowe pounced for the only goal of the game with 12 minutes to go.

There was still time for the impressive Joe Gelhardt to unleash a rasping strike only to be denied by Dan Lavercombe - the Fylde goalkeeper, who was released by Latics earlier this summer.

Lavercombe had made just as fine a stop in the first half to deny Anthony Pilkington from close range.

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And when the goalkeeper was exposed at the start of the second half - when a crossfield run by Gelhardt created an opening for Tylor Golden - he was indebted to a defender for pulling off an outstanding block.

The major negative was the first-half substitution of striker Callum Lang following an innocuous fall, and he'll be scanned to assess any possible damage to his lower leg.

Latics: O Evans; Byrne, Kipre, Fox, Naismith; Morsy, Da Silva Lopes; Pilkington, Roberts, Jacobs; Lang.

Subs: Jones, Jolley, Golden, Obi, Dunkley, Burgess, Weir, Gelhardt, Crankshaw, Perry, Finley.

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AFC Fylde: Lavercombe; Phillips, Byrne, Burke, Duxbury; Montrose, Bradley, Haughton, Kosylo; Williams, Willoughby.

Subs: Craigen, Jameson, Marveggio, Doyle, Robles, Rowe, Hemmings, Croasdale, Yeates, Grogan.