Wigan stun Man. City

Ben Watson and manager Roberto Martinez.

Wigan Athletic claimed one of the greatest FA Cup final upsets of all time when a 90th-minute header from substitute Ben Watson gave them a 1-0 win over highly-fancied Manchester City at Wembley Stadium yesterday.

Wigan, still threatened with relegation from the Premier League, played the better football throughout and deserved to win against a largely listless City side who had defender Pablo Zabaleta sent off for a second yellow card in the 84th minute.

It was Wigan’s first FA Cup final in their 81-year history and they won it when Watson, who had only been on the field for nine minutes and had broken his leg earlier this season, powered an unstoppable header past keeper Joe Hart from a Shaun Maloney corner.

Wigan’s win was the biggest upset since Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the 1988 final and represented a personal triumph for their chairman Dave Whelan who broke his leg playing for Blackburn Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup final.

Wigan now face two Premier League matches to save themselves from relegation, but will become the first team to win the FA Cup and go down in the same season if they fail to stay up.

Manchester City, FA Cup winners in 2011 and Premier League champions last season, were the overwhelming favourites to win the famous trophy for the sixth time but were largely outplayed against the underdogs who put their erratic league form behind them.

Hart’s selection was the main talking point before kick-off when he was named in the starting line-up rather than Romanian Costel Pantilimon, who had played in all of City’s FA Cup matches on the way to the final but said in the build-up that he planned to leave the club at the end of the season.

City began to play with more pace after the break largely because James Milner had replaced the subdued Nasri but they never seriously looked like making a breakthrough.

Wigan had the same problem at the other end until the dramatic finale on the stroke of 90 minutes when Hart was powerless to stop the ball flying past him.

Even if they had lost, Wigan knew they would play in the Europa League next season because City had already clinched a Champions League spot. But this cup win could now galvanise them to extend their Premier League status for a ninth season.

FA Cup winners

11 – Manchester United.
10 – Arsenal.
8 – Tottenham Hotspur.
7 – Aston Villa, Liverpool, Chelsea.
6 – Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United.
5 – Everton, Manchester City, The Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion.