Lee Johnson has taken responsibility for the mix-up that saw Dion Sanderson pulled out of Sunderland's starting line-up at the last minute before the Black Cats EFL Trophy win at Oldham Athletic.
On-loan defender Sanderson was named in the starting XI until it was realised that he had previously played for Wolves' U21 side in this competition back in October, and was therefore cup-tied.
When the mistake came to light, he was quickly replaced by Tom Flanagan with Dan Neil replacing Flanagan on the bench.
"I take that on my chin," said Johnson, who took over as head coach on Saturday.
"I’m the one that selects the side. Yes, I've only been here a couple of days, but it's my fault.
"What we've got to do is drive standards.
"Our organizational standards need to be better."
Sunderland's team coach was also caught in traffic on the way to the game following an accident on the M62 which meant kick-off had to be delayed by 20 minutes, but neither that nor the hiccup with Sanderson knocked Sunderland out of their stride at Boundary Park.
They fell behind to Bobby Grant's early strike, but came back to win 2-1 against the League Two side thanks to an equaliser before half-time from Chris Maguire and then a winner from Josh Scowen just after the hour.
Johnson said: "Our on-pitch performance was better today, there was more movement in the box and more aggression and cohesion.
"But of course you're playing a side of a slightly lower standard, even though I thought they gave us a really good game.
"They hustled and worked our hard, but I think our class showed in the end."
Johnson was appointed on Saturday lunchtime and took charge of the home league defeat against Wigan Athletic just a couple of hours later.
But he only had to wait a few extra days for his first victory, as Sunderland ended a seven-game winless run in all competitions dating back to early November.
He said: "It's definitely good to get a win – for the lads more than anything.
"I'm comfortable in my own skin to deal with the pressure but there's nothing like winning football matches, and you could see in the dressing room that the buzz is back.
"I was pleased with them today, even when we went a goal down it could have been a bit same-old, same-old, but we started to create cleaner-cut chances and with a bit more composure we could have had three or four goals today.
"What we have to do is see a bit of character in action."
