The County Ground (photo by Martin A Haisley via Twitter)

Swindon brushed aside a tepid Wigan to breeze into the Fourth Round of the FA Cup. Latics, to all intents and purposes fielding a reserve side, failed to capitalise on Callum McManaman’s 35th minute goal as a lively Swindon outplayed their Premier League visitors on their way to a more than deserved win.

As expected, a drastically modified Latics took to the pitch at the County Ground. Though Al Habsi and Watson retained their places and Gary Caldwell made a welcome return to the centre of defence, this was a new lineup containing, amongst others, the out-of-favour Hendry Thomas and Shaun Maloney. Jordan Mustoe, who played his last senior game precisely one year ago against Hull in the equivalent cup tie, was handed his first start for the club and took up position alongside Adrian Lopez and the returning Emmerson Boyce at the back. The pacey Callum McManaman is back in South Lancs after his his loan spell at Blackpool (during which he played 12 games and scored 2 goals) and joined McArthur and Di Santo at the other end of the field this afternoon. Daniel Redmond and Nouha Dicko were handed places on the bench alongside regular first-teamers Sammon, Gomez, Moses, Gohouri and Pollitt.

Latics began by playing things at their own pace –a rather slow pace–, and though Adrian Lopez made a bit of a howler when his misplaced pass gifted the hosts a decent opportunity, this altered back four managed to repel most, if not all, attacks. Swindon weren’t without their dodgy moments at the back, either, but also managed to keep their opponents out with relative ease.

A long range shot from Hendry Thomas was Wigan’s first attempt of the game, but it flew way over the bar and into the packed stand behind Foderingham’s goal. In fact, said Robins keeper was largely untested up until the 35th minute, when the dangerous Callum McManaman sprinted his way into the area only to be brought down by defender Aden Flint. Yet another penalty to Latics, and Ben Watson, who’d been rather quiet up to this point, stepped up to take it. Unfortunately he slipped and the ball cannoned into the post, but McManaman was on hand to finish what he started and put Latics 1-0 ahead.

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Weekend off: A win-win situation for Bobby?

Bit of a fractured week, this, with FA Cup, Premier League, Champions League and Europa games all thrown into the mix spanning a seven day period. For Latics, however, the equation was rather simple: win tonight and face another Cup match against Fulham on Sunday. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Though Martinez was keeping his usual straight-laced, straight-faced perspective on a potential week of FA Cup ties, you just know that, deep down, he would have preferred to give his players a two week rest in preparation for the Premier League battles to come. I mean, come on. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t see this week as even a little bit of a hindrance to Latics’ survival aspirations.

Of course, it offered yet another opportunity for the likes of Adrian Lopez, Daniel Redmond and Callum McManaman to get some first team action against Premier League opposition, and by itself you’d think that’s a good thing. Perhaps it may turn out to be, who knows? Maybe Macca will be sticking a hat trick past Stoke on the final day of the season to keep us in the Prem for another season. Maybe Conor Sammon is the 600,000 Dollar Man to replace a radically off-the-pace Mauro Boselli and will grab ten goals between now and May? Perhaps, but he was ineligible for today so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see him.

However, with our league position looking rather precarious –to the point your heart begins to sink when you see the league table– one can’t help but view tonight’s game as a mildly unwelcome distraction. A bit like Michael McIntyre, only much less irritating and, most of the time, infinitely more humorous. Well, maybe less so now Titus Bramble has left, but I suppose that cat mascot thing is always good for a laugh – looks like he learned his moves from JJ.

It’s going to take something special, a winning run the likes of which we haven’t seen under Martinez thus far, for us to emerge from this pickle with our heads intact. Forget all that just now, though. Tonight was about the regular bench-warmers and eager second-teamers getting a good run out, which they certainly did. Gary Caldwell and Momo Diame were the only survivors from the starting XI that ground out a 1–1 draw with Liverpool on Saturday with Watson, Moses and McCarthy taking their seats on the subs bench. The rest would receive a well-earned rest, which will be vital for the difficult run of fixtures to come… yeesh, I don’t even want to think about them.

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Emmerson Boyce helped his team to a clean sheet

With the Premier League (quite obviously) a massive priority, Latics made eight changes to the starting lineup for this ‘big’ local derby (as the Wigan Evening Post termed it), and they don’t come much bigger than Bolton. Well, maybe Preston. Or any of the Manchester Clubs. In terms of match practice, anyway, today’s game was a useful opportunity to blood some youngsters and new boys.

Most notably, Callum McManaman assumed the centre forward position, reprising his role from the Third Round tie at Hull. Diame, too, returned in the centre of midfield, as did James McArthur, who this week hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. You could say he was lucky not to hit anything else, but that would be somewhat irrelevant to today’s tie. McCarthy, Rodallega, N’Zogbia and a whole host of others were rested for the even bigger game against West Brom at the Hawthorns on Tuesday evening.

Wigan were slow to get off the mark and came under immediate pressure, Johan Elmander putting the ball over the bar via a Gary Caldwell –returning after a one-match ban– block after just ten seconds of the game. Very soon after, Victor Moses, also back in the side after a lengthy injury layoff, found himself through with a superb chance but only succeeded in finding the side netting. Bit of a dodgy moment for the Trotters, but a slightly rusty Moses was always going to struggle to put the ball in from such a narrow angle.

The visitors were looking a bit nervy, especially Adrian Lopez, facing Premier League opposition for the first time. But things settled down at the back as Victor Moses set about looking to make inroads, creating a couple of good chances and squeezing out the odd corner. In a good spell of pressure from Latics, Momo Diame won his side a free kick just yards from the Bolton area, the resulting Jordi Gomez shot easily saved by Jaaskelainen. Just seconds later, McManaman found himself with a superb chance created by Moses, but a fantastic last-ditch Robinson block thwarted his efforts to keep the score at 0-0.

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Match action(?)

In a season such as this, managers are caught between two rather large, and in some cases expensive, stools when it comes to the FA Cup. It’s the oft-touted story; to use the competition as an opportunity for fringe team players to gain much needed match practice in preparation for challenges to come, or treat it as you would a Premier League match and go out all guns blazing in an attempt to win the thing outright?

Whilst the latter might not apply in the case of Wigan Athletic, especially in the 2010–11 season, it is somewhat tempting to get caught up in the hype and emotion surrounding the competition. On this occasion, I think it would be foolish to plump for all out attack and somewhat unusual considering the sides fielded by Martinez in the Carling Cup earlier this season. In the event, fringe players were enough to overcome Hartlepool, Preston and Swansea, but not Arsenal. Still, a decent run, you would say, especially because it wasn’t all plain sailing even if Latics might have seemed the slightest bit clinical for the first time under Big Rob.

These occasions tend to boil down to the ‘glass half full/empty’ situation. If you’re the positive type, then you’d be pleased with either a win or a loss. Whilst you can’t ever really be happy with a losing team, especially against Championship opposition, a win would mean more distraction from the real prize this season, namely retaining our place in the Premier League. I’m not entirely sure in which camp I would pitch a tent, though I’m the old fashioned type that revels in a Latics win no matter what competition in which it may come. One thing’s for sure, though – nobody concerned wants a replay.

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