Wigan Athletic boss on striking conundrum - 'It's a tough balance...they are feeling the pressure...'

Latics drew another blank in midweek against Nottingham Forest Under-21s in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, advancing to the knockout stages only via a penalty shoot-out.

It continued a season of toil in the league, where only Stevenage (11) have scored fewer goals than the 12 Latics have mustered in their 14 matches played.

On-loan strikers Joe Hugill and Dale Taylor have managed only three and two goals respectively in all competitions, and the rest of the team has been unable to step up to the plate with enough regularity.

As a result, the demands are high on the two 20-year-olds, with Maloney desperate not to add to it.

When asked whether Hugill - who fluffed his lines from Latics' only real clear-cut chance against Forest - was suffering from a lack of confidence, Maloney replied: "Maybe...and I think it's the same with Dale.

"If you look at the performances, and the chances we're creating...it's a tough balance...what I don't want is to be pressurising these young lads too much...to the point they probably are at the moment.

"Joe and Dale are both only 20...Maleace (Asamoah, 21), Michael (Olakigbe, 20), Silko (Thomas, 20), Dion (Rankine, 22) are also very young guys...so maybe it is a balance which I've not got right yet.

"Obviously I have to be really demanding...and when we have chances, we have to take more of them. But I feel that, with some of the young lads, they are feeling the pressure.

"Going back to pre-season, Joe had a very similar chance to the one in midweek at Tranmere, and he put it away. And Joe's a talent...he gets into great positions in the box and he is a good finisher.

"Definitely he can work on his hold-up play, especially when teams go man for man, but he's only 20 and that's completely normal.

"So yeah it's striking that balance...of not making them feel like they're under too much pressure, but we still want them to feel it a little bit to keep them on their toes."

Maloney also defended the decision to loan out Latics' only other senior centre-forward - Josh Stones, also 20 - to National League outfit Oldham Athletic until January.

When asked whether he was confident Latics had enough in the attacking ranks to see them through until the January transfer window, Maloney added: "Yes, I am...I think the biggest worry would be if we weren't creating any chances.

"And although we got beat by (league leaders) Wycombe (last weekend), what we did for 95 per cent of the game was enough to win the game.

"Obviously the most important thing is always that last action, and taking that chance, but I absolutely trust the talent they have...I'm just hoping that all the work we're doing with them will come out there on the pitch.

"With Stonesey...everyone knows how much I like him, but at some point - like with Kai (Payne), probably even more so with Stonesey - he has a need to play games.

"He went to Ross County two seasons ago before I came here and didn't play, he went to Oldham last year and got a bad injury after only four games.

"To be fair to Stonesey, he desperately needs to play..and if he's not going to play 10 games in a row here, he needs to go somewhere else where that will be the case...so that when he does come back to us, he's ready to go."