Coventry City Under-18s suffered a 2-1 loss to Wigan Athletic in a tight game at the Alan Higgs Centre.
The hosts started slowly on a damp and misty morning and were given a let off in the opening exchanges when Wigan forward Millen Bronn put his effort over the bar from six yards out.
With six minutes gone, the visitors took the lead when Sean McGurk fired an effort into the bottom right-hand corner.
Wigan’s second followed soon after as the Sky Blues were caught on the break after losing possession in midfield. This time it was Tom Costello who doubled the visitors’ advantage in the 13th minute with his left foot strike beating ‘keeper Keelan Fallows.
After falling behind early on, the Sky Blues grew into the game as the half wore on and Aaron Evans-Harriot forced a good save from Wigan ‘keeper Owen Mooney, who tipped a volley smartly past the post.
City dominated the ball for the remainder of the first half but couldn’t create any clear cut chances, leaving the game 0-2 at the break.
The Sky Blues started the second half as they had ended the first and it took a great piece of skill by Sam Pitts-Eckersall in the middle of the park to win the corner that would peg back Wigan.
From the resulting corner, a powerful header by skipper George Burroughs was stopped at point blank range by Mooney, but his parry landed straight at the feet of Pitts-Eckersall who emphatically thumped the ball home from close range.
Coventry nearly made it 2-2 in the 65th minute as Evans-Harriot’s left footed effort from long range went just wide of the far post.
A scrappy and frustrating final 10 minutes saw both sides struggle to maintain any periods of meaningful possession, but City continued to fight hard well into injury time to try and sneak an equaliser.
In the end, the Sky Blues’ efforts weren’t enough and Wigan headed back to the north west with all three points in a game that was ultimately cast in the opening 15 minutes.
Sky Blues Xl: Fallows, Finnegan (Costa 75’), Forsyth (Hewitt 60’), Reeve, McGrath, Burroughs, Evans-Harriott, Harland, Nee, Pitts-Eckersall, Nightingale (Purves 80’).
Wigan Athletic Xl: Mooney, Lloyd, Snell, Carragher, Hughes, Abeeko, McGurk, McHugh, Costello, Lomax, Bronn.