Huddersfield Town 1-4 Wigan Athletic
The FA Cup with Budweiser
Fifth Round Proper
3.55pm, Sunday 17 February 2013
John Smith's Stadium
Live on ITV1
Winning clubs receive £180,000 from The FA's Prize Fund
Click here for all the Fifth Round results
by Wally Downes
Wigan eased their way in to the Fifth Round of The FA Cup with a win at Huddersfield.
An Arouna Kone brace, along with strikes from the impressive Callum McManaman and James McArthur, earned Wigan the win with Lee Novak heading in a consolation goal for the home side.
Roberto Martinez took his side away for some warm weather training in Tenerife in the build up to the tie and it paid off with a comfortable victory over their Championship opposition.
McManaman evaded his marker and delivered a decent cross, but Jordi Gomez could only head on to the roof of the net after six minutes.
Wigan continued to dominate possession while Huddersfield seemed happy to sit back and allow them to play the ball around.
But it was the home side that registered the next effort when Alan Lee headed over after a clever Calum Woods cross.
The Latics finally got the goal they deserved on the half hour mark. McManaman weaved his way down the left before pinging a shot into the top corner.
And with five minutes of the first half left Wigan deservedly doubled their lead. McManaman meandered in from that left and pulled the ball back to Gomez whose shot forced Alex Smithies to make a great save.
But Kone reacted quickest in the Huddersfield penalty box and stabbed the ball home for his side’s second.
After the break Huddersfield rang the changes. James Vaughan was introduced and the striker almost reduced the deficit. Ronnie Stam was dispossessed and Joel Robles had to save Vaughan’s effort that followed.
On 51 minutes Wigan were back on the scoresheet with a fine team goal, finished off by McArthur. The midfielder played a one-two with Gomez before smashing home.
Huddersfield pulled one back to give their supporters a brief moment of relief from the Wigan onslaught as substitute Novak headed home another Woods cross.
But Wigan were not finished and late on Kone, back from the African Cup of Nations in scintillating form, fired in his second of the day after capitalising on a defensive error in the Huddersfield backline.
Huddersfield Town
Smithies, Hunt, Gerrard, Peter Clarke, Woods, Danns, Atkinson (Vaughan 46), Clayton, Scannell (Norwood 65), Lee (Novak 46), Arfield.
Substitutes not used: Bennett, Dixon, Gobern, Lynch.
Wigan Athletic
Robles, Golobart, Scharner, Figueroa, Stam, Gomez (Beausejour 74), McArthur (McCarthy 90), Espinoza (Maloney 57), Fyvie, Kone, McManaman.
Substitutes not used: Al Habsi, , Di Santo, Maloney, Henriquez, Boyce.
Referee: Michael Oliver
