00:00Wigan fans are used to winning things. 22 league titles, countless cups, shields and medals,
00:10their fans have seen more silver than a royal butler. Oh sorry, oh wait no yeah that's Wigan's
00:17rugby team, yes. Wigan Athletic Football Club though, and sorry two seconds let me get the
00:22Wikipedia page up, and yeah with all due respect to their assorted non-league and football league
00:28stuff, barely a pot to pit in by comparison. So then when they reached the 2013 FA Cup final the
00:35best most people were hoping for was just to like avoid an embarrassment. The Lattics you see were up
00:41against the star-studded Manchester City who were fresh off winning their first league title in
00:46decades. But the whole thing about underdogs, they do occasionally have a way of surprising the
00:51favourites and this final would go on to be one of the most famous examples of that. And the thing is
00:58for Wigan who were one of the quote unquote smaller clubs in the Premier League at the time and who
01:04in an age of billionaires running teams were backed by a millionaire who made his money selling track
01:10suits, this was such a rare opportunity to not just outshine the town's rugby teams but also the region's
01:17other football clubs. It's a pretty proud town, Stuart McConey, a Wigan native and lifelong fan told
01:234-4-2. But that pride has always been expressed through the rugby. Many local football fans were
01:29tempted by bigger clubs like Man United are literally right there but McConey had followed
01:34Wigan's rise through the divisions. By 2013, he genuinely believed they could do the seemingly
01:40impossible against Manchester City. I always knew we had a chance, he told us. City hadn't yet become
01:46the global powerhouse they are today. And while Roberto Mancini's City squad did both stars like
01:52Aguero and Silva and Tevez and I could go on, Wigan's team was far less glamorous. Under Roberto
02:00Martinez they were really struggling defensively, teetering on the brink of a relegation and conceded
02:04ten goals in just the four games leading up to the final. Which made their run there all the more
02:12miraculous. Wigan's cup journey had begun with narrow victories over lower league sides like
02:17Bournemouth because yes they were a lower league side then and Macclesfield before an impressive 4-1
02:22win over Huddersfield in the fifth round. We were sensational Martin Tarbuck, editor of Mudhut,
02:28a fanzine told 4-4-2. Martinez found value in the places others didn't look. Key players
02:34like Aruna Kone and Callum McManaman helped propelled Wigan through to the quarter-finals
02:39where they stunned Everton with a 3-0 win at Goodison Park securing a place at Wembley.
02:45Manchester City's route to the final had been predictably a lot smoother with dominant wins
02:50over Watford, Leeds and Barnsley but Wigan knew they had something of a chance and despite Wigan's
02:57semi-final against Millwall being marred by off-field violence they made it through and knew they were
03:02just 90 minutes away from creating history. And the thing is despite the obvious disparity in
03:08footballing class between the two teams things weren't all chocolate and roses over at Manchester
03:14City. Costell Pantillamon was undisputably their cup goalkeeper not starting a single game in the
03:20Premier League but playing 90 minutes in every single round on their way to the final and yet without
03:26warning and just hours before the game he was dropped in favour of Joe Hart. It was really tough for me
03:32recalls Pantillamon who had been told he would play. I didn't accept it like okay it was tough for me.
03:38I remember being in my room and crying a bit because I was frustrated. It was strange for everybody
03:44because the decisions weren't made the day before or something just hours. Meanwhile over the corridor
03:50Wigan's spirits were buoyed by a motivational speech from their owner Dave Whelan who had famously
03:55suffered his own FA Cup heartbreak decades earlier. In the 1960 FA Cup final while playing for Blackburn a
04:02stray ball fell right between himself and Wolverhampton Wanderers Norman Dealey. Whelan got the ball and
04:09Dealey's late challenge got his sock, his shin pad and finally his bone. For those who lament the modern
04:16standards of officiating worth pointing out here that the referee just waves play on. Without
04:21substitutions, Greek mathematician Pythagoras having not invented them yet I'd presume, Wigan's ten men
04:27were roundly beaten 3-0. Before the game though Wigan's players including Captain Emerson Boyce
04:33shared a poignant moment with Joseph Kendrick, a young mascot with a rare genetic disorder.
04:39He ended up calming me down more than I did for him because he's one of us, Boyce told 442. And this
04:45human touch certainly did something as the team started the match with such aggression they visibly
04:50shocked Manchester City. But still quality does tell and they nearly struck early. Wigan's goalkeeper
04:57Joel Robles pulled off a crucial save to deny Carlos Tevez, one that Boyce insisted to us change the
05:03match even at that early juncture. And from there it did look like Wigan's tactical approach was
05:09absolutely spot on. Despite I guess technically being a 4-4-2, Samir Nasri and David Silva were not
05:16providing that Man City team any of their wick. They instead would look to drift inside and link
05:21up with Yaya Toure to help create chances for both Tevez and Aguero. The responsibility of hugging the
05:27touchline and stretching the defence then falling to Pablo Zabaleta and Guile Clichy. But Wigan simply
05:33did not let them settle. Callum McManaman and Aruna Kone in particular chasing down every loose ball at the
05:40back and not giving the City defence a moment's peace. Wigan's own full backs but in particular Roger Espinoza
05:46playing so aggressively that it forced City's all the way back into their own half. It was risky
05:52don't get me wrong and it was still allowing Manchester City to create chances but as the
05:56first half came to a close it did start to look like maybe it was working. And at the 45 minute mark
06:04the game was still 0-0. Wigan weren't yet dreaming of a spectacular upset but would have been growing in
06:10confidence that it was at least possible. As the second half progressed City struggled to break them down
06:15further and Martinez made a crucial substitution. Ben Watson, himself poetically returning from his
06:23own broken leg that had seen him miss six months of the season, entered the game in the 81st minute.
06:29His sides one and only change in the whole game and he did the unthinkable. With the clock ticking
06:3789 and City now down to 10 men, Pablo Zabaleta allowing the frustrations of the afternoon to manifest
06:43into a cynical hack at Maloney when already on a yellow card, it just happened. A nonchalant in-swinging
06:51corner dropped into the near post area and Man City's defenders remained planted to the soil.
06:58Zonal marking at corners is always the right way to defend until suddenly it isn't.
07:04A 91st minute winner in the cup final against one of the best teams in the world.
07:26I was crying, Tarbuk told us. It was just the greatest moment. The dramatic final whistle confirmed
07:34Wigan's 1-0 victory sending fans into a state of euphoria they had dared to dream of. But for the
07:40players, that joy was bittersweet. They still had a crucial league match against Arsenal which would,
07:47one way or the other, seal their fate in the Premier League.
07:50We couldn't even celebrate, Boyce told us. I went for a drugs test immediately after the game and when I
07:56came back, the changing room was empty. I just got dressed and sat on the bus. And in the days and
08:03weeks that followed that final, reality did set in. Just three days after the FA Cup win, they were
08:09relegated from the Premier League going down 4-1 at Arsenal. As cruel a reversal of fortune in football
08:16as has arguably ever been seen. The years since have, understandably, been difficult for Wigan.
08:22Financial troubles followed the sale of the Whelan family's majority stake in 2018.
08:27After a dismal period in the Championship and League One, Wigan were hit with a points deduction
08:32and relegated again in 2020. Further hampered this time by, you remember it, the COVID-19 pandemic.
08:40It's never boring at Wigan, Boyce told us. Did we celebrate because we won the cup or did we have
08:45to be respectful because we've been relegated? We weren't sure, but when we had that parade,
08:50all the fans came out regardless. It was absolutely magical. Now, some 12 years after their unforgettable
08:57victory, Wigan faces new challenges. But that 2013 FA Cup win still stands as a beacon of hope,
09:05not just for the club's long-suffering fans, but for real supporters everywhere. If Ben Watson's late
09:12goals should have proved anything, it's that these things, as unlikely as they may seem,
09:18do actually happen. If you've only got the patience to wait for them.
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