Oldham boss Harry Kewell felt his team stood up well to Carlisle United’s attempted fightback.

The Australian boss admitted the Blues threw everything they had at the Latics in Saturday’s second half.

But Kewell’s side, who led 2-0 at the break, held off Chris Beech’s men before wrapping up a 3-0 victory.

Former Leeds and Liverpool star Kewell said he was “over the moon” with the outcome.

“The team stuck to their jobs,” he said on Oldham’s website. “We knew what Carlisle were gonna bring.

“It’s different because it’s a cup game, and anything can happen, and yes you can throw people forward.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge. I felt my players dealt with it rather well.

“The performance that we saw, I felt it deserved the win.”

Kewell highlighted the way Oldham adjusted in order to fend Carlisle off after the break as key to their progress to the Carabao Cup second round.

“I felt we had to adapt,” he said. “At the start of the game we played our way but we know in League Two you can bombard people with high balls and crosses.

“Carlisle in the second half came out and threw everything at us. We just needed that bit more quality in the final third to kill teams off.

“If you don’t do that you will see opportunities arising.

“But we defended well. There was only one problem I found, and we’ll correct that.

“Two-nil can be a dangerous lead but we adapted, we coped with what Carlisle threw at us.”