Blackburn’s late heroics to beat Oldham were not enough to prevent criticism from manager Tony Mowbray.
Rovers avoided a Carabao Cup upset against League Two opposition by scoring twice in stoppage time to secure a 3-2 first-round victory.
After Gevaro Nepomuceno’s opener had been cancelled out by Blackburn’s Bradley Dack in the 70th minute, Oldham captain Mohamed Maouche struck to put the visitors on course for a cup upset.
But Rovers spared their embarrassment with a fine Stewart Downing strike followed by Joe Rothwell tapping in.
Mowbray said: “It wasn’t very enjoyable to watch. It was a frustrating night for us all.
“We’d worked on a game plan of dominating the ball, pushing them back, just waiting to create chances and yet we didn’t get in behind them enough, down the sides.
“We played in front of them too much, too slow. They scored on the transition and looked really organised.
“It wasn’t really until we made some changes that we got back into it. We decided to go a bit more direct and that paid off.
“We could have scored some more – the offside goal, Dacky missing a one-on-one, I haven’t seen that before.
“We found a way to win but let’s be honest, it wasn’t very good.
“But you have to give them credit, that they found a way to win the game at the end. We found a way to win at the death.”
Latics manager Laurent Banide said his side’s concentration has to improve.
He said: “It’s difficult but this is football. We must accept this.
“We didn’t play well in the last 10 minutes and concede two goals so that’s football.
“Against a big team we paid the price. Our level is not enough at the moment and I’m very sad for their supporters because they were with us today.
“We played very well but we lost. We need to find a solution.
“We must have more concentration, more work. We must work on these situations and try to do our best.”
