Pep Guardiola knows what it is like, Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini too. Erik ten Hag does not, and that represents hope of salvaging silverware from a sorry season. Three times in the last 11 years, Wigan had upset the odds and ejected a Manchester club from the FA Cup. Each was Manchester City, each a better team than Ten Hag’s Manchester United are now. But they averted embarrassment with an emphatic performance, if a relatively narrow scoreline, to set up a tie where defeat would be a still greater humiliation.
Newport or Eastleigh await in the fourth round, with a path to the last 16 looking navigable for last season’s runners-up. On a night when Ten Hag’s forwards were rampant at times but wasteful at others, a defender, in Diogo Dalot, broke the deadlock and Bruno Fernandes scored a penalty: United’s chance conversion rate this season remains resolutely low but they can at least hope their season has a happy finish.
