Phil Brown felt his players showed 'a lot of bottle' during their 1-0 Carling Cup win at Wigan on Tuesday night.

Stuart Elliott's first half goal was enough to win the game, although the Tigers had to withstand a lot of pressure during the second period as Wigan went in search of an equaliser.

"The players showed some bottle last night," said Brown.

"I said to them at half time that it might stay at 1-0 going into the final ten minutes. When that happens, you've got to have the bottle to get over the winning line.

"Wigan's tactics changed and they went a bit more direct, but we stood up to that.

"First and foremost, it's important to give a good account of yourselves when you come up against Premiership opponents.

"The message to the players before the game was to have in mind our failings during pre-season when we went to Winterton with the wrong attitude and got turned over.

"In some ways, the shoe was on the other foot last night and we were Winterton and Wigan were Hull City.

"We had to go out with the right attitude and hope that they had the wrong one, although I don't think they did.

"Wigan had the right attitude and it was a good game of football. It was a good test for us and we've come through it. But the most important thing is that we'll now go to Blackpool with the confidence of this result."

Brown was also delighted with the players that were given the opportunity to impress at the JJB Stadium.

The City boss made six changes to the side that beat Norwich and could now face some difficult decisions when deciding who to leave out for the next game.

"I made six changes and the message to them was 'be in the team against Blackpool'. I know that sounds easy enough to say, but after beating Norwich 2-1, I already had eleven players staking their claim for the Blackpool game.

"The ones who played last night, the ones who didn't and the ones who played on Saturday are all tight with each other and we have a great squad mentality at the moment.

"The likes of Featherstone, Livermore, Hughes, McPhee, Bridges and Myhill all came in and did a great job last night.

"Looking at it, the most pleasing thing was the clean sheet against Premiership opposition littered with great players and a potent strike force."