Wigan Athletic survive late rally to kick-off Wembley campaign with a win over Aston Villa Under-21s
Substitute Dara Costelloe popped up with a late winner to give Wigan Athletic victory over Aston Villa Under-21s in their opening group game in the Vertu Trophy.
Latics started brightly with a Max Power corner being headed goalwards by Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen, which forced a decent save out of Blade Earley.
But Latics weren't to be denied on 27 minutes, when Connor Barrett's cross from the right was just too high for Adam Moseley, only for K'Marni Miller to volley home at the far post.
Villa came close to an equaliser, but Latics were indebted to Joe Walsh for making a smart save initially, before Sam Bolland got back to head the follow-up off the line.
And Latics doubled their lead five minutes before the interval when great work down the right from Barrett led to him finding Moseley, whose shot hit the bar and bounced down before being finished off by a defender.
Latics picked up where they'd left off in the second half, and a blistering strike from Barrett produced a superb save from Earley at full stretch.
At the other end, an equally great save from Walsh prevented Ben Broggio from pulling one back for Villa.
However – with Latics understandably looking a different side, having made five substitutions - the visitors turned the game on its head with two goals in the space of five minutes deep into the final quarter, with Tommi O'Reilly and Kane Taylor finding the mark.
With Latics wondering how the game hadn't already been put to bed, Costelloe restored the lead inside 60 seconds to make it 3-2 with nine minutes to go, to the relief of all inside the Brick Community Stadium.