IT’S GRIGG THE PEP SHOCK BOY
Wigan hero Will sparks giant Cup-set
PEP Guardiola has said repeatedly his team could not win four trophies this season. Never did he think he would be proved right in circumstances quite like this.
Guardiola’s Manchester City were downed here by Wigan forward Will Grigg 10 minutes from the end of a pulsating game.
The mistake was Kyle Walker’s as the City defender inexplicably allowed the ball to run under his foot but the glory was Grigg’s as he raced away to score across goalkeeper Claudio Bravo from what remained an unlikely angle.
Previously Grigg was known only for a song written and sang in his honour by Northern ireland fans during the European Championship of 2016.
He did not play a single minute in that tournament but now the 26- year- old has become the third Wigan player to end City’s Fa Cup hopes in the space of five years. Ben Watson’s goal won Wigan the Cup in a memorable final in 2013 and James Perch scored the decisive goal as they beat City 2-1 at the Etihad the following year.
Wigan were a Premier league club when they won the Cup. Now they play in league one.
So Grigg was the hero but much of the story came in the last minute of the first half when City midfielder Fabian delph was sent off for a tackle on Max Power.
That is what undeniably influenced the direction of this game and no doubt played a part in some of the unsavoury scenes we saw after the final whistle.
delph’s was a poor tackle and worthy of a red card. He was not in control when he slid towards his opponent, studs raised.
But Guardiola was incensed not so much by this but by the fact that referee anthony Taylor appeared ready to show only a yellow card before pressure seemed to arrive from Wigan players and coaching staff.
Taylor actually had his yellow card in his hand before changing his mind and that simply proved too much for Guardiola. The City manager has recently campaigned for an end to bad tackles. it has become one of the themes of City’s season. But here the Catalan argued furiously with Wigan coach leam richardson on the touchline before clashing with opposite number Paul Cook as the teams went up the tunnel.
Caught on BBC camera, the two men were kept apart, to some degree, by Peter reid, coaching these days at Wigan on a voluntarily basis. if reid’s blood was up in a manner reminiscent of his days haring around muddy English midfields in the 1980s then it is unlikely that he was alone.
The atmosphere at that point and for most of the second half was febrile. on the field, City dominated but just could not score. Then, after Grigg brought the roof off with his late goal on the counter, Guardiola and Cook started to snipe again from one technical area to another.
Guardiola, as we know, is a gifted, innovative coach but he is also a competitor. like all top managers, he is a quite terrible loser and once he had exchanged handshakes at the end he was off to the dressing room to contemplate just how he and his team had let this happen.
This was a strong City team and they would have expected to win. Wigan were brave and ambitious in the first half and played some good football too. like rochdale against Tottenham the day before, this was a result earned by something more impressive than mere hard work.
at times early on City were uncertain defensively. right back danilo made two mistakes and Grigg almost punished him for one of them, driving past John Stones to shoot into the side netting.
But City had chances too, though. of course they did.
Guardiola’s team dominated the ball and ilkay Gundogan and Sergio aguero brought good saves from Wigan goalkeeper Christian Walton. indeed, had Walton not touched over aguero’s rising drive just before delph was sent off then this game would probably have ended differently.
as it was, all City’s possession and territorial dominance brought them nothing in the second half. Wigan were heroic in defence and when organisation and energy threatened not to be enough them some last- ditch tackles, blocks and headers served equally as good a purpose.
Wigan, it must be said, never looked like scoring in the second half. They simply spent too long trying to keep City’s 10 men away from their goal. When Kevin de Bruyne was thrown on late in the game one wondered if that was to
be the decisive tactical move. But all this just made Grigg’s goal all the more incredible. Not even the most myopic Wigan fan — and there were many — would have predicted or even hoped for it so when the low shot found the corner you could have heard the noise up on Beech Hill.
The nonsense that followed the game was regrettable and could have been avoided. Whatever happened to police at football matches? We have certainly not heard the last of that and the FA will now surely take a look even if this was, on the whole, another special night for their famous old competition. WIGAN ATHLETIC (4-5-1): Walton 7; Byrne 8, Dunkley 8, Burn 8, Elder 8; Massey 6.5 (Colclough 77min), Powell 6.5 (Fulton 27, 7), Perkins 8, Power 8, Roberts 6.5 (Jacobs 55, 7); GRIGG 8.5. Subs not used: Jones, Bruce, Hunt, James. Scorer: Grigg 79. Booked: Massey, Fulton, Elder, Walton, Power. Manager: Paul Cook 6. MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Bravo 6.5; Danilo 6, Stones 5.5, Laporte 6, Delph 4; Fernandinho 7, D Silva 6 (De Bruyne 65, 7), Gundogan 6.5; B Silva 6.5, Aguero 6, Sane 6 (Walker 46, 7). Subs not used: Kompany, Ederson, Zinchenko, Foden, Diaz. Booked: None. Sent off: Delph. Manager: Pep Guardiola 6. Referee: Anthony Taylor, 7. Attendance: 19,242.