Roberts strike brings City down to earth

Wigan Athletic 1 Manchester City

A first-half goal from Neil Roberts gave Wigan one of the more notable victories of their history as Manchester City showed that it takes more than a side that merely looks strong on paper to ensure against embarrassment in the Worthington Cup.

City might have fielded a Premiership-strength team but they were out-fought by the side currently running third in the Second Division and ultimately deserved no better than their ignominious exit, matching the fate of West Bromwich in the previous round.

Wigan's delight was only slightly spoiled by the scenes at the end, when hundreds of their supporters ignored pleas to stay off the pitch and then clashed with City fans at one corner of the ground.

That apart, it was one of the Latics' very best days. From the start, they looked the more eager side against a City team held up by traffic congestion that caused a 15-minute delay in the kick-off. In many ways, City never quite caught up and they were always second best in a first half of few clear-cut chances.

With the Manchester derby looming on Saturday, City were neither helped nor encouraged by the sight of two of their first-choice defenders, Steve Howey and Sylvain Distin, limping off injured and it was while they were still reorganising themselves after the second of those departures that Wigan struck the crucial blow. One of the City substitutes, Gerard Wiekens, fouled Nathan Ellington on the left and was then unable to clear Andy Liddle's free-kick. Tony Dinning drove it back into the middle and Roberts was there to hook the ball home from close range for only his second goal of the season.

City had shown only the occasional spark through Ali Benarbia, with neither Shaun Goater nor Nicolas Anelka getting any change out of a home defence robustly marshalled by their captain, the Canadian international Jason De Vos. Nor did they improve much after the break and it took an expertly timed tackle from Sun Jihai to deny the Wigan substitute, Gary Teale, a chance for a second goal.

Matt Jackson had a far better opportunity to make it safe when the ball fell for him by the far post, but he volleyed over and Wigan could have paid for that miss when John Filan clawed out Benarbia's curling free-kick. It was one of the very few saves Filan had to make, with his block from Darren Huckerby's low shot two minutes into injury time the other significant one.

"If you told me he would only have to make two saves, I would have settled for it,'' the Wigan manager, Paul Jewell, said. "It might not have been pretty to watch, but I thought we thoroughly deserved it because we fought for our lives. If it had been a proper football match, we would have lost.''

Having insisted that he wanted to treat the competition with respect, Kevin Keegan took the defeat on the chin. "We just weren't good enough on the night,'' the City manager said. "If we had shown a little more commitment in the first half it might have been different, but credit to Wigan.

"I hope they go all the way, and in this competition you never know.''

Wigan Athletic (4-4-2): Filan; Eaden, Jackson, De Vos, McMillan (Mitchell, 60); Liddell (Teale, 38), Dinning, Jarrett, Kennedy; Ellington (Green, 77), Roberts. Substitutes not used: Beasant (gk), Flynn.

Manchester City (3-5-2): Nash; Dunne, Howey (Wiekens, 18), Distin (Horlock, 34); Sun Jihai, Benarbia, Foé, Wright-Phillips, Jensen; Anelka, Goater (Huckerby, 72). Substitutes not used: Flowers (gk), Vuoso.

Referee: M Dean (The Wirral).