It says everything about the modern managerial mayhem that Mark Hughes could preside over one Premier League side’s exit to lowly opposition and yet find himself presiding over an FA Cup quarter final with another, in the same season.
Exiting to fourth tier and third tier sides would have been unprecedented in the circumstances and Hughes was the most relived man in the stadium after being run even closer than his Stoke side were at Coventry in January. Class told in the end – though only because Wigan switched off for one fateful minute.
There was full northern hospitality for the visiting side: bitter cold, swirling wind, a bumpy, letter-strewn pitch and two early ‘welcome to Wigan’ challenges for Guido Carrillo and Dusan Tadic when the Hughes managerial era at Saints got under way.