Report by John Patrick Heeley

Wigan Athletic's youth side gave a good impression of themselves against a strong Burscough side that included former West Ham United and Manchester City midfielder Ian Bishop plus Steve Redmond who had made over 700 appearances in his time with Manchester City, Oldham and Bury.

David Lowe and David Lee fielded predominantely youth team players with the returning Ged Brannan the only one with any first team experience of note.

The opening half was more or less a non descript affair but the home side did create a couple of decent half chances.

Linnets manager Mike Marsh made a number of changes during the interval and Ged Brannan made way for a younger pair of legs for the second half in the Wigan line up.

Both sides continued to battle hard but it was the Unibond League side who created the better chances and were finally rewarded with around 10 minutes remaining when Wigan were penalised for an infringement in the area, substitute PETER WRIGHT stepping up to convert the resultant spot kick with a no nonsense penalty straight down the middle.

With seconds ticking away Burscough added a second and secured the victory when PETER WRIGHT pressurised keeper James Salisbury and the young trialist completely messed things up to allow the former Newcastle United trainee a simple tap in for his second of the evening.

The referee signalled the end of the game moments after the restart and although the result won't exactly look pleasant on paper, the performance should warrant praise with some decent efforts put in by David Lee's young guns, David Moore and Ben Perry-Acton looking particularly promising up front.