Embarrassing! That’s the only conclusion to be reached after being knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Lincoln City. Lincoln raced into a 3-0 lead and the Latics pulled it back to 3-2 but it was too little, too late as the damage had been done.
Stephen Robinson apologetically commented, “The first hour was embarrassing. You can only apologise to the fans who turned up tonight and those watching on television. We warned them that Lincoln are a big, physical side who launch balls into the box. Matt Rhead is a big handful. We worked on it all week to deal with it and physically, they didn't perform. There were eight or nine players who got beaten up, if we are being honest."
"Ultimately, I take the blame for that as I gave people opportunities here that weren't up to playing at this level. Changes will be made. There were players who hid from the ball. It was blatantly obvious they didn't want the ball when the going got tough, so they won't play for me again. We will deal with that and I have to make tough decisions. We shouldn't be in that position against a team in the Conference. We had chances early on to go one or two-nil up and didn't take them again. If you conceded goals like the ones we conceded and play people in on goal then you are going to lose football matches.”