Published 4/11/2012 4:45:17 PM by Shane Barrow from soccermogul

Manchester United came in winners of eight straight.  Then along came little Wigan Athletic.  This was just not supposed to happen.  EPL leaders Manchester United were expected to make short work of relegation threatened Wigan on Wednesday afternoon.  Instead, United ran into a buzzsaw as Wigan were clearly motivated and up for the challenge.

Wigan were the better side right from the opening whistle.  So much so that ManU boss Sir Alex Ferguson was making adjustments just 15 minutes in as he asked Wayne Rooney to drop into a deeper role as Wigan bossed the midfield.  Minutes later it looked like Wigan had grabbed a deserved lead.

Victor Moses rose high and headed home a corner kick past a helpless David De Gea.  Celebrations immediately erupted....that is until it was noticed that the linesman had his flag up for a foul.  It seems the linesman flagged Wigan for a foul as they screened De Gea.  A soft call for sure as it had little effect on the outcome of the play.  Either way, no goal and the game went scoreless to the break.

The second was much the same as Wigan bossed the game spurred on by a wonderful home crowd.  The questionable call in the first half was evened out in the second as a blown decision left Wigan with a corner kick.  They started short and Shaun Maloney raced across the top of the box before curling a perfect shot into the backpost side netting.  Wigan had a deserved lead and Manchester United were in big, big trouble.

Sir Alex Ferguson was so bothered by the proceedings that he took the drastic measure of substituting Wayne Rooney on the hour mark as Nani was introduced.  Would that bring United to life?

It did as United began to push for the tying goal and the pressure of the lead began to weigh on Wigan.  The game opened up as Moses went close for Wigan on one end while Danny Welbeck was denied at the other.  The crowd howled in protest as the 4th official showed a whopping five minutes of stoppage time.  It would not matter though as Wigan saw the match out and pulled one of the upsets of the EPL season.

The loss breathes life into the Manchester City title hopes after they dispatched West Brom 4-0.  City only trails United by five points now as the season winds down.

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