Seeing the FA Cup paraded around Market Place, just like we predicted on the PWU Podcast, was something of a surreal experience. Of course, we were never totally serious about it all, were we? The very notion of such a thing is foolish, surely? But no, this afternoon I got to see Arouna Kone balance the FA Cup in one hand and his iPad in the other before whipping the assembled crowd of approximately 30,000 into a veritable frenzy.

George Formby gets caught up in cup fever.

The power of belief.

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Wigan’s horseshoe collection, shortly before it was stolen by Alex Ferguson

Agh, must I write about this now? 18 painstaking hours of blanking out the memory will be undone in a fraction of that time tapping away at my chocolate-stained keyboard, but what the heck. I believe there is just enough space for brief reflection before we draw a line under this matter and move on to Wemb… ah, hahah! But that is a subject for another day (tomorrow, in fact), so I shall not mention it just yet, even if I feel the constant need.

So much right, yet so much wrong. At times Latics looked at though they could stick the ball in Swansea’s net at will and this was an utter joy to witness. It was all tempered, however, by the odd piece of chaotic defending that threatened to undermine the club’s very survival in The Greatest League in the World (©The Mainstream Media), and so it came to pass. Or, should I say, misplaced pass. (Yay, enough with the poor jokes – Ed.)

I dunno what happened there as I am my own editor so there is no need to add such comments. Anyhow, the injuries issue. Barring McArthur’s early season travails and tribulations, I can hardly remember a single midfield or forward that has suffered quite as much as our centre backs have collectively this season.

Respected up-and-coming footy journalistic type Danny Jamieson recently compiled a longlist of all the players that have had spells in the centre of defence in the past nine months or so, and it’s pretty populous. I won’t recite it here or my web bandwidth will be exceeded long before I am finished typing, but suffice to say any club so unsettled in such an integral position, even the very best of the best, would suffer to some extent.

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(c)Channel 4: Just believe.

Phew, it’s getting a bit tight now, isn’t it? As phenomenally demoralising as last weekend might have been, Latics once again had the chance to pull themselves clear of that media mosh pit that is the relegation zone. It sounds a bit weird, but just like last week, Aston Villa play on Monday so three points would have been enough to climb that crucial place to safety, at least for the remainder of the weekend. See, it’s like GCSE revision – if you look at things week-by-week, the task becomes just a bit easier.

Of course, lose and you’re sweating on the Villa result once again. I simply couldn’t rest easy from 5pm Saturday to 10pm Monday knowing that Latics might be six points away from 17th place by the time Tuesday rolls around, a considerable (but by no means completely insurmountable) gap to close with so few games remaining.

Oh go on then, I’ll dig out my favourite quote for you all to admire again:

“You are always one defeat away from a crisis. On that basis, we’re in deep doodoo.” — Villa manager John Gregory, 1999

Hahaaa! I shall never tire of that.

But as long as you keep the gap to three points there is still a chance, what with that increasingly apt final day Villa-Wigan showdown. My goodness, would I settle for a winner-takes-all situation now…

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First on the coach for a sunny start to the journey.

In-coach breakfast. Haven’t had steak pie in ages. And don’t worry, I cleaned up the mess afterwards.

On the road to Wembley. Note how, the closer we got to the capital, the wetter it became. Strange, it’s normally the other way around.

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