The team should be proud of statement EFL Trophy win, says Wilkinson | OneFootball

Elite Development Squad Lead Coach Ben Wilkinson says his team should be proud of their statement performance against Oldham Athletic on Tuesday evening.

In our first EFL Trophy game of 2025/26, City ran out 5-1 winners at Boundary Park and moved us to the Group E summit.

Mahamadou Sangare opened up his City account with a fine finish before Justin Oboavwoduo doubled our advantage.

Ashton Muir made it three-nil before the break, but Oldham retaliated early in the second half when Luke Hannant converted from the penalty spot.

MATCH REPORT | OLDHAM 1-5 CITY

Sangare restored our three-goal lead with just over 20 minutes to play before Muir topped off a five-star performance by our EDS.

And after the game, Wilkinson provided his thoughts on our best performance of the season so far.

“The scoreline is quite a big statement for this competition, and they should be really proud of their performance,” began the Lead Coach.

“You don't get too many nights like this in this competition so they should be really proud of what they've done.

“But also that we have to use it as a springboard to not waste in the next two [EFL Trophy] games and to make sure that in those two games we give the best account of ourselves and we do absolutely everything to get through to the next stage.”

It’s City’s first win in 90 minutes in the EFL Trophy since our 3-1 win over Derby County in October 2022.

And with one of the youngest squads in the competition, Wilkinson also explained how he encouraged his team to have the belief that tonight’s result would be possible.

“We spoke about it before the game, having had some experience in the competition, about the guys backing themselves and making sure that they are positive, and we take the game head on,” said Wilkinson.

“And I thought we did that. Maybe the first 15/20 minutes we were a little bit tentative in terms of we were okay, but I thought we had more in us.

“But once we started to have one or two opportunities, the belief grew, the guys had more personality to get on the ball and more energy, and the last 15/20 minutes of the first half grew, and individuals took control of the game.”

It’s a tight turnaround for Wilkinson and his squad who will now prepare for our final game before the September international break.

We take on Manchester United at the Leigh Sports Village on Sunday 31 August, with kick-off scheduled for 13:00 (UK) – with the game also available to watch live on CITY+.

And with it set to be another difficult test, Wilkinson and his team will be focused on recovery and transferring momentum from Tuesday’s EFL Trophy win into the weekend.

“We will recover from this game and then look to start preparing,” began Wilkins.

“We've had a difficult first two weeks in terms of a lot of football and we are a little bit stretched in terms of personnel. So I think the main thing is recovering the guys [from Oldham].

“And then like you say it's a Manchester derby. We had success in the fixture last season, which was really pleasing. As we know these games are usually really tight and can be decided in small moments.

“We've had good experiences in that in the last few months so hopefully we can take that into the game and have a positive performance and get a positive result.”