It’s painful for me that Man City repeat is overlooked in Wigan Athletic history | OneFootball

Wigan Athletic's 2014 FA Cup upset over Manchester City is frustratingly overlooked

The FA Cup is the oldest domestic cup competition in world football, and is arguably the finest showcase English football has on offer due to its romantic fairytale nature.

The 2023/24 season showed that even in a world where the powers that be decided to scrap FA Cup replays, the magic of the cup is very much still intact.

We witnessed sixth tier Maidstone United reach the fifth round with wins over League Two Barrow in round one, League One Stevenage in round two, and most unlikely of all, Ipswich Town in round three.

The Tractor Boys, of course, were enjoying the journey of a lifetime themselves last January, as they were well on their way to securing back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League, so perhaps they can be forgiven for a surprise slip-up in the cup.

Maidstone's FA Cup journey ended with a heavy fifth round defeat at Coventry City, but so began yet another feel-good tale, as the Sky Blues reached the semi-final as a Championship side, and came agonisingly close to getting the better of eventual champions Manchester United.

Wigan Athletic's 2014 FA Cup upset is frustratingly overlooked

But if you are looking for a group of football supporters who will vouch for the very much alive and kicking magic of the cup, look no further than the Wigan Athletic contingent.

We have literally seen it all, after seeing the same Latics side who were relegated from the Premier League in 2013 emerging victorious in the FA Cup final against Roberto Mancini's Manchester City.

While City had celebrated their first Premier League title of the Sheikh Mansour era 12 months prior to their now infamous day under the Wembley arch, the Latics are a club who are not used to such riches, and their cup winning campaign marked the first time they had managed to get further than the competition's quarter-final stage.

Trips to the national stadium have since become a regular occurrence for the City faithful, courtesy of the dominance overseen by Pep Guardiola, whereas those of us donning the blue and white stripes on 11th May 2013, have become more used to trips such as Bristol Rovers away.

Although the Latics were in the Premier League, the miraculous nature of a 1-0 FA Cup final triumph over Mancini's men simply cannot be understated by supporters, or anyone else for that matter.

What is perhaps even more ridiculous is the fact that as the years went by, and City became an even more dominant force in the English game, they were still unable to topple the Latics in two further FA Cup encounters following the final.

Firstly, as part of a brave defence of their trophy, the Tics travelled to the Etihad in the quarter-final in 2014, just shy of a year on from their Wembley win.

Despite facing yet another David and Goliath scenario, it was Championship Wigan who emerged victorious at the home of City, who they would defeat once more in the fifth round in 2018, this time on home soil.

But despite the fact that it was the unlikely Wembley win in 2013 which secured FA Cup glory for the Latics, their win at the Etihad the following season was arguably all the more impressive.

The fact that a Championship side turned up at the home of that campaign's Premier League champions, and defeated them 2-1 courtesy of goals from Jordi Gomez and James Perch is difficult to fathom in itself, let alone in the quarter-final of a major competition.

But it's made all the more unthinkable by the fact that this was a City side who will have been determined to avoid embarrassment at the hands of the Latics for the second season running, yet crumbled to defeat once more.

As a Wigan fan who was at Wembley Stadium on 11th May 2013, I cannot for one minute claim that the events of the Etihad in 2014 were a greater feat than what we had seen at the national stadium not long before.

However, I cannot be alone in my viewpoint that the Latics' victory at City is one of the greatest FA Cup upsets of all time, but is vastly underrated due to the prior events of the 2013 final, and was further knocked down the list of great cup shocks once more in 2018 when, ironically, the blue side of the city of Manchester came to the Brick Community Stadium and lost to their Greater Manchester neighbours, and have now done so in all three of the clubs' recent FA Cup encounters.

Again, the events of February 2018 were glorious, as the then best side in League One defeated the then Premier League top dogs, but it's just a pity that the greatest away win in the Latics' history is not on as much of a pedestal as it should be, thanks to two other cup upsets over City.

City must still fear facing Latics in FA Cup

Three of the biggest cup upsets of all time, as well as three of the greatest moments in Latics' history have been created by meetings between the Tics and City following the turn of the millennium.

The Etihad faithful must still be sick of the sight of Wigan, who have embarrassed one of English football's most successful clubs time and time again in recent years.

I do not think it is tongue in cheek to say that City fans must be genuinely grateful when their side are not pitted against the Latics in the cup, as seemingly that FA Cup magic seems to deliver for the boys in blue and white whenever that eventuality occurs.

But as much as we can revel in the glory of Wembley 2013, and that night at the Brick in 2018, what the Latics did at the Etihad in 2014 must never be overlooked either.