Wigan Athletic chief reacts to 'crazy' night in the rain at Stockport County
Glenn Whelan was left to reflect on a 'crazy' night at Edgeley Park after torrential rain halted Wigan Athletic's final Vertu Trophy group stage clash at Stockport County for almost an hour.
After the visitors fell behind to Corey O'Keeffe's opening goal, Latics hit back before the break,, when Dara Costelloe's header was helped into his own net by County goalkeeper Corey Addai.
Latics started the second half well and Costelloe tested Addai again before Paul Mullin somehow fired wide from bang in front just before the hour mark.
Referee Scott Oldham was then forced to take both teams off the field while groundstaff desperately tried to get rid of the growing amount of surface water.
When play eventually resumed, substitute Harrison Bettoni saw a stoppage-time effort controversially ruled out for offside before Latics were defeated 6-5 on penalties.
Leaving Latics out of the Vertu Trophy at the group stage ... after a more than eventful evening.
"It was crazy, wasn't it? The rain just came out of nowhere," said assistant boss Whelan, who has been managing the side in this competition.
"The poor linesman on this side was getting drenched but I thought the lads handled the delay very well.
"It was the same for both teams and it was just a case of keeping the lads fresh, a quick change of kit and ready to get back warm and ready to play.
"The funny thing was the last 25 minutes was probably the best part of the game, where both teams really went for it.
"We were disappointed with the first half and we made a couple of changes, tweaked a couple of things to get us up the pitch.
"It was a very poor goal to concede and definitely something we have to improve on.
"We got the equaliser and we wanted a reaction in the second half, and I think we got that.
"Paul (Mullin) should score in the second half. it's a ball across and all he has to do is hit the target.
"Dara has a good chance, their goalkeeper makes a good save and Harrison came close to winning it at the end.
"Someone told us that he's from Stockport, so this is his local area, and he's affected the game and put himself into some good positions.
"He's come up with a good goal that should give us a 2-1 win and unfortunately the linesman's made a mistake, and that's what can happen in football."
Joseph Hungbo couldn’t make the most of the first chance of the game and he was unable to make amends as he limped off on 28 minutes.
After Toby Savin – making his second start for Latics – did well to deny Corey Edwards, Stockport took the lead on the 32-minute mark.
Right-back O'Keeffe was allowed to run half the length of the field, playing a neat one-two with Lewis Fiorini, before firing into the net from 20 yards.
Latics took only eight minutes to restore parity and it was a goal that will haunt County goalkeeper Addai for some time.
There seemed little danger when Costelloe sent a looping header off substitute Fraser Murray's corner.
However, under minimal pressure from Will Aimson, Addai succeeded only in flicking the ball into the back of his own net from a yard as he tried to divert it over the bar.
Addai did considerably better two minutes after the restart, when he pulled off a fine save to deny Costelloe, who tried his luck from the edge of the box.
Costelloe should have laid on Latics' second goal for Mullin on 58 minutes only for the on-loan Wrexham man to inexplicably sidefoot wide at the far post from five yards out.
That was the last action a torrential downpour led to the official taking both sets of players off for an initial 15 minutes, which became longer as the rain continued.
When the teams eventually reappeared, Stockport almost scored within seconds of the restart, when a long-range strike from Fiorini took a massive deflection, which Savin did well to readjust to and
claw out.
Costelloe forced another good save from Addai before Latics thought they'd won it in stoppage-time only for an offside flag to cut short Bettoni's celebrations.
Latics looked as though they were going to win the penalty shoot-out after Savin saved County’s fourth kick.
But Morgan Fox was unable to win it for Latics, and Jensen Weir then blazed over the top to leave County 6-5 winners.
Latics’ successful spot-kick scorers were Murray, skipper Jason Kerr, Aimson, Costelloe and Bettoni.
The result left Latics rock bottom of Northern Group A, with Salford City and Stockport qualifying for the knockout stages after finishing first and second respectively, ahead of third-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-21s.