There’s really not much to say about this debacle. Sunderland were terrible, Wigan weren’t much better. It was freezing cold, the crowd was crap, the players were crap and we got stuffed out of sight by a team we should be at least competing with at home, even with the players picked. To keep things correct though I’ll expand on it. A little.
As predicted Keane made wholesale changes to the team. It wasn’t a completely new eleven and there were some first team-ers playing but there were also some players who, if it were a league game, wouldn’t have got near the starting line-up. The returning Jonny Evans came straight in as did his old chum from last season Nosworthy, returning from injury. It would have been nice to see them both in the centre again but Mcshanes inclusion meant Nosworthy went to right back. Richardson was playing again, a good chance to get some match fitness, and along with Whitehead in midfield was Graham Kavanagh, surprisingly. O’Donovan, Waghorn and Murphy all got starts too.
That was as interesting as it got. What followed was 90 minutes of really dull, really bad football. We never entered first gear let alone get into second and Wigan opened the scoring when a free kick found an unmarked Paul Scharner in the box who diverted past Gordon with ease. And other than 2 Wigan players going off with injuries that’s all that happened in the half. Wigan got their 2nd after an hour when Evans dallied on the edge of the box and was caught by Agahowa as he attempted a back pass. Mcshane tried to cover and seemed to get in front of the attacker but his effort of a clearance rifled in past Gordon. It would have been a great finish if it was at the right end. The 3rd came after their sub, David Cotterill, sauntered forward, got to the edge of the box and with the defence still backing away smashed in a great shot to finish the tie.
That was Wigans cue to not bother anymore and for the next five minutes we had a bit of a go with Murphy and O’Donovan going close, the latter clipping the bar, but we were never going to score. Soon after everyone gave up and willed the final whistle to be blown so this pain could be brought to an end.
So another cup run halted before it’s even started. We’ve not got past the opening round of either cup in the last 2 years, which is pretty poor but if you change the team around that much its clear you don’t expect to go far. It seemed to be a combined effort to give a last chance to a few players and give some returning players some match fitness. You could argue both were achieved in that respect as I don’t expect a few of those that featured yesterday to play for the club again. But was sacrificing a cup run and giving your league rivals a confidence boosting win, not to mention putting a bit more pressure on yourself, really worth all that?