Stoke City continued a promising pre-season by edging past League Two Oldham 2-0 at the bet365 Stadium in the opening round of the EFL Cup.

The Potters had posted draws with Crewe and Villareal as well as a win over Premier League Everton in their warm-up campaign.

And while Mark Robins' side needed an own goal from Oldham's summer signing Oli Norburn to get the ball rolling, a second decent finish from Robert Bozenik ensured smooth passage.

Victory continued a positive vibe around the second tier side ahead of the Championship start next week.

Yet despite the defeat Mick Mellon's Oldham will feel they punched above their weight for much of the contest.

Neither are strangers to strong League Cup campaigns with Stoke winning the competition in 1972 and reached the quarter finals in 2020-21 and Oldham making the final in 1989-90.

Robins was able to field three of his summer signings with Svante Ingelsson and £10m Ethan Galbraith looking solid in the midfield and ex-Dundee player Luke Graham in defence.

Robins will largely have been pleased with what he saw, despite there being no goals in the opening period despite chances for both sides as the League Two outfit competed well.

Calum Kavanagh was a threat up front for Micky Mellon's side putting in Mike Fondop early only for the striker to be denied twice by Viktor Johansson.

Fondop returned the favour after shortly before the half time break only for Kavanagh to fire his effort too close to Johansson in the middle of the goal.

In between it was Stoke who went closest with Sam Gallagher having a decent effort saved by Oldham goalkeeper Matt Hudson on 15 minutes, firing over after the half hour mark, then heading narrowly past the top right corner four minutes before the break.

Three minutes after the re-start the Potters were ahead and it was Oli Norburn, signed on a free by Oldham from Notts County in the summer, who turned in Sorba Thomas's corner attempting a headed clearance.

Stoke relaxed after that and sealed the win eight minutes from time when Bae Jun-Ho put a through ball to Bozenik which the Slovakian finished low into the bottom right corner from 14 yards out.