Notts County boss Martin Paterson admitted to being ‘gutted’ at his side’s 1-0 defeat at Wigan in round one of the Carabao Cup.
The League Two side pushed their League One opponents all the way at the Brick Community Stadium but ultimately Paul Mullin’s 10th-minute penalty proved decisive.
County hit the post through substitute Matty Dennis, with Wigan goalkeeper Sam Tickle making three fines in the second half to keep his side in front.
“I’m gutted, we’re gutted that we’re out of the cup,” said Paterson.
“I think you saw from the two teams’ line-ups that both teams respected the competition.
“I value all of the cup competitions in this country and this club deserves nothing less than to come here and try to get to the next stage.
“We’re not, and in short, we are gutted. The result maybe wasn’t good, but the performance was good.”
Wigan boss Ryan Lowe admitted: “It was definitely a game of two halves. We’re obviously pleased to be into the second round – however you get there, you get there.
“I didn’t like the last 20 minutes, we were a little bit all over the place, we lacked calmness, people were trying to kill the game off when we didn’t need to, as we were already winning.
“So there’s loads of positives to come out of it, although sometimes in football it doesn’t always look pretty and in fairness to Notts County I thought they played very well.
“I thought they probably deserved a little bit more from the game, and I said that to their manager after the game.”
