Wigan can hold heads high

Much was made in the build up to the cup final of Premier League safety being more important than FA Cup glory and in a business sense it might be hard to argue, but ask the majority of football supporters what they would rather and the unanimous outcome would be Cup glory.

Tuesday’s defeat at Arsenal cruelly brought the Latics back down to earth following the elation of that famous Wembley win as their eight year Premier League stay was ended. The fact that they achieved such a long spell in the top flight should be celebrated in itself, given that prior to this relegation they were the tenth longest serving club in the league, highlighting that for a club of their stature such a stay is a terrific effort. Further to that whilst it might have more often than not been year after year of survival particularly in recent seasons, they have played some quite exquisite football whilst on their famous great escapes and the manner in which such escapology has come  about has become something of a legend.

This term inevitably proved an escape to far, with Wigan seemingly unable to juggle their traditional end of season come back with the cup run and along with this they were severely hit by defensive injuries at the wrong time. Who knows whether they would still be in the league had they not lost Ivan Ramis to injury just after the turn of the year or had Antolin Alcarez not suffered throughout with niggling injuries, but then most clubs who get relegated could tell you a tale of ifs and buts.

In reality Wigan’s number was probably up, after all you cannot keep losing your best couple of players each year and still be fighting back next year although the Latics made a very good fist of it. This also should not be considered the end, teams do keep from the Championship even if recent history would make a case to suggest otherwise. The FA Cup success should surpass the disappointment of exiting the football league, for few supporters outside of the Premier League’s elite will get to experience a day of such elation and who knows a year from now Premier League football might yet be back at the DW Stadium.