WIGAN Athletic captain Callum Lang has hailed York City’s defensive efforts after Friday evening’s hard-fought victory in the Emirates FA Cup.

Stephen Humphrys scored the only goal of the sides' Second Round tie after racing onto a long ball over the City defence and rounding goalkeeper David Stockdale with just over an hour played.

That proved enough to hand the Latics a mouth-watering Third Round clash with Premier League heavyweights Manchester United on the weekend of January 6-7.

READ NEXT:

The Minstermen will instead face Boreham Wood in the Vanarama National League on that date, but Lang admits that his side were made to work hard for victory.

“It was a very tough night,” he told the BBC after his side’s progression in the competition.

 “I think that we knew that it was going to be how it was.

“This is why it’s been on the screens and you see a lot of upsets in this Cup. We knew it was going to be tough.

“I think in the end, we dealt with it well.”

Whilst it had been hard to tell which side plied their trade in Sky Bet League One before the interval, Wigan began to show their dominance after the break.

Possession rose to 60 per cent, whilst the Latics narrowly edged the attempts with 13 to the Minstermen’s 11.

“In the first half, we had chances, but I think that York made it very tough for us,” Lang continued.

“Everyone, including myself, we had to be more clinical. I think we’ve shown in the league that we are a clinical team.

“It probably wasn’t good enough in the first half, and the manager spoke about that. We needed to be more confident.

“Second half, it opened up for us a bit, but York made it very tough for us.”