Latics ease to final on dark day for Lions

Millwall 0 Wigan 2

Yet after his goal on Saturday sent Roberto Martinez’s side on their way to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Championship side Millwall at Wembley, the Latics will contest their first-ever FA Cup final next month.

Maloney was instrumental in a dominant display from the perennial Premier League escape artists on a day that was only marred by the arrest of 10 Millwall supporters for vicious fighting amongst themselves during the second half.

After the Scottish international had volleyed home Arouna Kone’s inch-perfect cross in the first-half, Callum McManaman’s strike 12 minutes from time eventually sealed Wigan’s return to Wembley.

And after picking up numerous winners’ medals during two spells at Celtic, Maloney believes he made the right decision to join the club who were still playing in England’s bottom league as recently as 1997.

“It was probably a gamble on both sides because I had some terrible injuries for a couple of years. The manager took as much of a gamble on me, really,” he said.

“Obviously it was hard to leave a club the size of Celtic. When you join a club like Wigan, the main objective each season is to stay in the Premier League and winning trophies isn’t the big thing. But with each round you get within touching distance and we know anyone can beat anyone on the day. Now we’re hoping that can happen in the final.”

Wigan — whose average attendances at the DW Stadium this season are a shade under 19,000 — failed to sell their allocation of 30,000 tickets for Wembley and had to return a large portion for resale to the general public. There were no such problems for Millwall, enjoying their best cup run since losing 3-0 to Manchester United in the 2004 final, despite a season battling relegation in the Championship. Manager Kenny Jackett selected a defensive side to contain Wigan’s fluid 3-4-3 formation but after an early header from Andy Keogh missed the target, the Lions were penned back in their own half for large portions of the first period. A brilliant save from David Forde denied the excellent McManaman from distance before Maloney put Wigan in front.

With the frustration mounting among the Millwall fans, a few scuffles surprisingly broke out at the end of the first half but the worst was yet to come. A better performance after the break almost hauled the Championship side back into the game before their fate was sealed by McManaman’s cool finish.

By then, there was a full-scale battle going on in the lower tier behind the goal. The police arrived to break up the melee but the damage to Millwall’s already-troubled reputation had already been done.

“I was concentrating on the game and wasn’t aware of any crowd trouble until I came out and went live on the television,” admitted Jackett afterwards.

“If the scenes are as everyone says, then obviously we will be very disappointed. Our board of directors have worked very hard to try to take the club in the right direction. We’ll continue to work hard but time will tell. Whether we’ll ever do it is a tough call. If everything is as it seems, then it will be a very disappointing day for the club.”

Millwall later released a statement promising to ban for life any supporters found guilty of involvement. For Wigan, there is no time to bask in their achievement with crucial Premier League fixtures away to Manchester City and West Ham to come this week.

Maloney is confident they can use their cup run to their advantage in the battle to avoid the drop but acknowledged their success has only increased the burgeoning reputation of Martinez.

“I think it’s a brilliant feather in his cap to take a team of our size to a cup final. Hopefully he can add a winners’ medal to that,” he said.

“I think there’ll be a time when a bigger club will try and take him and you can understand that because he has been brilliant for us. I just hope that’s a long way down the road.”