Southampton: Saints to play away to Wigan Athletic in FA Cup

In a surprising turn of events, Southampton will now travel to face the Latics after their giant killing in the FA Cup fifth round.

The League One side caused perhaps the biggest upset of this year’s FA Cup, with a late Will Grigg strike seeing Wigan to a memorable 1-0 win over Manchester City.

It was the first time the Latics had faced the Premier League leaders in nearly four years, when the sides incidentally met in the FA Cup final – Wigan won that encounter before getting relegated.

On this occasion the Latics were handed an advantage through a red card brandished to Fabian Delph towards the end of the first half. Despite this the Citizens were naturally still dominant with over 80 percent of the possession, but eventually couldn’t convert any of their 29 shots.

As a result the Saints will now travel to the DW Stadium stadium around the weekend of the 17th March, leaving Southampton with a very realistic shout of reaching the FA Cup semi-finals and earning a trip to Wembley.

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But despite the upset, the game against the Latics won’t be a straight-forward one for Mauricio Pellegrino and his side, with the side currently impressing in League One. With three games in hand on the leaders Blackburn, Paul Cook’s side are currently third and boast the tightest defence in the whole division.

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From 30 games, Wigan have conceded just 18, seven less than second-placed Shrewsbury Town. Despite this, they have been prolific on the offensive front too, with nearly two goals a game on average.

The Saints meanwhile will therefore need to guard against complacency and not go into the game thinking the victory is guaranteed. So far this season Southampton have only won against teams right at the bottom of the table or in their worst forms of the season – Wigan are quite the opposite this campaign.

Last season however under Claude Puel the Saints were impressive in the cup and hopefully Pellegrino can motivate the players enough. Both Brighton and Rochdale are possible opponents for the last four meaning Southampton have a very realistic chance of reaching the final.

For now though, the players must remain focused with four very important league games sitting between them and their quarter final tie.