CUP OF CHEER
Wigan have been through hell... United tie is a slice of heaven, says 2013 hero Graham Barrow
WIGAN ATHLETIC’S 2013 FA Cup Final humbling of Manchester City felt like ancient history as the club fought for its very existence last summer.
Assistant boss Graham Barrow, whose playing and coaching career is steeped in all things Wigan, still shudders when he recalls the phone call from manager Shaun Maloney (below) on a chastening June day.
“I was on holiday in Portugal and I took a call from Shaun who said that he thought the club was going to fold the next day,” Barrow revealed.
The 2022-23 season had been traumatic with players’ wages going unpaid and points deductions mounting up, culminating in relegation from the Championship.
At the 11th hour local businessman Mike Danson, who owns Super League side Wigan Warriors, came on board to secure the football club’s future.
It still meant a few worrying weeks trying to keep a discontented squad together in the knowledge they would start the League One season with an eight-point deduction. Barrow added: “I don’t think people even now realise how close the club came to going out of business in the summer.
“To be fair to Shaun he never went on holiday, desperately doing everything he could to keep things going on the playing side. “He managed to persuade the new owner to keep going. Before that it had been looking like another Bury situation – the club could have just gone.
“Everyone focuses on Everton and their 10-point deduction this season but what was going on at Wigan was far worse. It was a relief to still be in business.
“It was still a traumatic pre-season. Any player could have exercised his right to leave, because the club hadn’t honoured their contracts.
“They could have left for free, which would have been terrible.
“But we managed to sit them down and convince them that better times lay ahead.
“It was great to see many of them staying because they felt Wigan had given them the opportunity to play at a decent level, and didn’t want to be seen as ones who were leaving the club in the lurch.”
Tomorrow night, Manchester United will arrive at the DW Stadium in the
FA Cup third round. “Manchester United is the reward for all the hard work and the heartache,” Barrow said.
“The game has more or less sold out and it will be great for the new owner to see the stadium full and get a feel for what it can be like for a big game.” The FA Cup is in Wigan’s DNA since a late goal from Ben Watson saw Roberto Martinez’s side pull off a giantkilling against City just over a decade ago.
Even relegation from the Premier League three days later at Arsenal can never take the gloss off that magical day.
Barrow, who was assistant to Martinez, beamed: “It was fantastic day, one which has gone down in history. For one day we could forget battling against relegation.
“It was a huge disappointment to be relegated but if you ask any Wigan fan most would say they wouldn’t have swapped winning the FA Cup for staying in the Premier League.
“The owner Dave Whelan was the same. Nothing was going to take away the joy of winning the FA Cup.
“It hadn’t been that long ago that Wigan were a non-league club.”
And last summer, they very nearly were again.