Latics boss Lee Johnson admitted that his team were totally outplayed by Middlesbrough in the League Cup on Tuesday night.
He confessed, “It was a disappointing day for us. We didn’t do enough and it was men against boys, wasn’t it? It is fair to say we were out-thought, out-fought, out-enthused and out-energised. They were just the better side. It is understandable. You have to look at the two clubs and see where we are. I did hope we would put up more of a fight early. I thought that in the second half, we at least came out and tried to get on the ball and knock it around. But we only had one or two shots on goal — just as Birmingham didn’t have a shot on target against them at the weekend. It shows they are a good side, but it also shows we have got a lot of work to do. The consolation is that there is not going to be anyone anywhere near that good in League One. However, the players have to realise as individuals that they haven’t cracked it.”
“Some of them can sometimes think in their heads that they are Championship class. Then you look at the lesson taught to us as individuals here and it shows they have to knuckle down, go back to the drawing board and concentrate on their own game. You have to start questioning, do we need to bring someone in? Can we do it? Do we need to move a couple out? That’s a natural evolution of any football team. We will give it four or five league games and then assess. But I don’t think we should be downhearted going into Saturday. It is our level and we have to impose ourselves. We couldn’t get hold of it in the first 20 minutes and it was the same at Colchester, which is a worry. We have got to start games brighter. Boro were very assured in their tidy-up play and it killed us. It set the tone for the game.”