The story of a cup final from 2013 that still sends shivers down the spines of the City fans who witnessed it…
Words: David Clayton
Just 12 months on from City’s incredible Premier League title win, the Blues were back at Wembley for a second FA Cup final in three years.
It had been a season of highs and lows.
City were unbeaten in the Premier League until 9 December, winning nine and drawing six times before taking on a rejuvenated Manchester United at the Etihad.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s men had used the pain of losing the title in added time to City the previous campaign and were determined to reclaim the Premier League crown.
We went into the game on the back of a disappointing Champions League group phase, having failed to win any of the six matches we played, drawing three and losing three.
United took at 2-0 first-half lead against City, who fought back to 2-2 with goals from Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta, only to concede a Robin van Persie free-kick deep into added time.
The high the Blues had been on for pretty much 18 months was replaced by deflation, though it perhaps shouldn’t have.
City won six of the next seven Premier League matches to keep the pressure on leaders United, but the Reds were relentless and the gap at the top widened when the Blues took just two points from the next nine, including a woeful 3-1 loss at Southampton that gave our neighbours the chance to go 12 points clear with 12 games left.
"More than 85,000 would see goals from Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero secure a 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the semi-final, with Wigan Athletic beating Millwall the day before"
A successful defence of our crown became evermore unlikely, but the FA Cup offered a chance to salvage something. More than something.
Roberto Mancini’s side had glided through the rounds, seeing off Watford, Stoke City, Leeds United and Barnsley without conceding a goal before facing Chelsea in the semi-final at Wembley.
Prior to that game, City had gone to Old Trafford and beaten United 2-1, but that only reduced a 15-point gap to 12 – there were still seven games remaining, but Mancini had already publicly accepted the title was heading across Manchester.
More than 85,000 would see goals from Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero secure a 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the semi-final, with Wigan Athletic beating Millwall the day before – the police in London must have signed a relief that it would be an all Greater Manchester final and not Chelsea v Millwall!
To say City were strong favourites was an understatement.
The Blues had already beaten Roberto Martinez’s side home and away in the league, and the Latics were on the verge of being relegated from the top flight.
And so, on a suitably overcast and damp Saturday afternoon, the two teams walked out to contest the FA Cup final.
City’s starting XI fairly brimmed with talent, with Joe Hart in goal, Vincent Kompany wearing the skipper’s armband, Pablo Zabaleta at right-back, David Silva, Gareth Barry, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure in midfield and perhaps Europe’s best front pair in Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero.
"Mancini cut a frustrated figure on the touchline and as the teams walked off goalless at half-time, he clearly had words to say to his misfiring troops"
Wigan, with no major trophy in their history and relegation almost a certainty, were a formidable cup side that season having also reached the semi-finals of the League Cup, so City knew there was a job to be done if we were win the trophy for the second time in three years.
Yet, for whatever reason, the Blues were lacklustre and just couldn’t get going.
Wigan winger Callum McManaman was starting to give Gael Clichy a torrid time down the right flank as Latics’ confidence started to grow – they could see City weren’t at it and could smell blood.
Mancini cut a frustrated figure on the touchline and as the teams walked off goalless at half-time, he clearly had words to say to his misfiring troops – and they almost had an immediate effect as Aguero’s glancing header was cleared by Emerson Boyce at the near post, moments after the restart before Wigan once again started to threaten.
Nasri was first to be hooked by Mancini on 53 minutes, replaced by James Milner and as the minutes ticked by, Tevez also made way for Jack Rodwell.
But on 84 minutes, the momentum seemed to shift towards Wigan when a sloppy Gareth Barry pass left Zabaleta exposed and his late challenge on the excellent McManaman resulted in a second yellow card and an early bath for the Argentine.
It was now or never for Wigan as they won a corner on the left. The board went up for three additional minutes as McManaman’s corner whipped in and Rodwell lost his man – Ben Watson – who rose to head home and send one half of Wembley wild with delight.
"Wigan owner Dave Whelan had famously broken his leg playing in the 1960 FA Cup final for Blackburn Rovers, effectively ending his career"
The City players, fans and manager looked stunned – there wasn’t enough time to turn this around and what felt like seconds later, referee Andre Marriner blew for full-time.
After 81 years of existence, Wigan had won first trophy and as there always seems to be, there was a story behind the winning goal-scorer Watson.
Wigan owner Dave Whelan had famously broken his leg playing in the 1960 FA Cup final for Blackburn Rovers, effectively ending his career.
Watson broke his leg the previous November while playing for Wigan, so the fact he made the final at all was a story in itself, but the irony was not lost on Whelan – it was, perhaps written in the stars, that day.
“This is a dream come true… I hope I never come down from this high,” said Watson. “No one thought we would win, but the lads believed, the fans believed, and we’ve done it. Breaking your leg to scoring the winner in an FA Cup final… it’s crazy.”
For Mancini, the loss against Wigan was effectively the end of the road.
“We are disappointed… we didn’t play very well. This moment is difficult,” he said.
“We didn’t play our football… after we conceded a goal in the last minute that made it difficult. I’m very sorry for the fans… there were 40,000 of them here.”
“We didn’t play very well — I don’t know why… we didn’t play like we usually do. We conceded a goal in the last seconds… we didn’t play very well but we didn’t deserve to lose.”
Pablo Zabaleta was at a loss to why City had been so flat. In the immediate aftermath, he said: “It is hard to accept some defeats like this.
Tactically they were better than us and we need to accept… they have fully deserved the win. The team looked without passion, desire… it was difficult to find an answer why everything went wrong.”
Skipper Vincent Komany was gracious in defeat.
“Wigan deserved to win, but we’ll be back. There are many reasons why they deserved the win more than we did.”
Two days later, Mancini paid the ultimate price for the loss with his job. He had ended our 35-year wait for a trophy in 2011 and our 44-year wait for a top flight league title a year later, but it felt like the Blues had been unable to kick on again in 2012/13 and a change was agreed the best course of action for all parties.
A week later, the Italian took a full-page advert out in the Manchester Evening News, thanking the City fans for their love and support, and, in turn, our fans took a full page out thanking Mancini in the Italian paper Gazzetta dello Sport.
It was such a pity that his tenure had ended as a damp squib and as for Wigan Athletic? They were relegated from the Premier League just three days after lifting the FA Cup…
And Kompany’s promise of ‘we’ll be back’ was slightly understated with City’s upcoming FA Cup final against Chelsea our 29th trip to the national stadium since our loss to the Latics. Not bad.
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