Wigan Athletic Trophies & Titles

For any of the clubs in the Greater Manchester area, knowing that you’re not as good as the Premier League juggernauts that are Manchester City and Manchester United must rankle at least a little. In the case of Wigan Athletic, the club has at least been able to enjoy some relative success over the years, including winning the FA Cup and spending some years as a Premier League side themselves.

Ultimately, supporters of the Latics know not to get too far above their station, but they also believe that the club can enjoy its fair share of success relative to the position that it finds itself in in comparison to other teams.

League Titles

Wigan Athletic have never won the English top-flight, which is perhaps not all that surprising considering the size of the club. They haven’t even won the second level of the Football League pyramid, with the closest that they came being a second place finish in the Championship at the end of the 2004-2005 season, gaining promotion to the Premier League alongside Sunderland, who had won the Championship that year. The Black Cats finished seven points above them, though, so it’s not even as if it was all that close.

Third Level Division

The first time that Wigan Athletic won the third tier, which was confusingly known as the Second Division at the time, they did so quite comfortably thanks to a 14 point gap between themselves and Crewe Alexandra. Every other time they did it, however, they managed it by just two points to the team below them, putting their supporters through the wringer to enjoy the success. They have won the third level division a few times with the following being their performances:

Fourth Tier

In addition to winning the third tier, Wigan have also won the fourth tier of the English Football League pyramid, with the following table detailing how they did it. If the way in which Wigan Athletic would go on to win the third tier in the future was tense, that was as nothing when compared to the club’s performance in what was known as the Third Division at the time.

The Latics and Fulham actually finished on the same points and if the league had used Goal Difference to separate the sides then Fulham would’ve finished top. Instead, Goals Scored was used at the time, meaning that Wigan took the top spot and the West London club were promoted in second.

Wigan Athletic have enjoyed wins in other, less important leagues over the years. From the likes of the Northern Premier League to the Lancashire Combination, the Latics have seen off the rest of the non-league challengers in order to take home the silverware.

Whilst these non-league successes wouldn’t even be on the radar of a club like Manchester United, it is only right to acknowledge the club’s victory in them given the fact that it meant a lot to the supporters at the time.

Here is a look at how they’ve got on:

Season	League
1933-1934	Cheshire League
1934-1935	Cheshire League
1935-1936	Cheshire League
1947-1948	Lancashire Combination
1950-1951	Lancashire Combination
1952-1953	Lancashire Combination
1953-1954	Lancashire Combination
1964-1965	Cheshire League
1966-1967	Northern Floodlit League
1970-1971	Northern Premier League
1974-1975	Northern Premier League

Cups & Trophies

For a side like Wigan Athletic, the ability to win cups and other trophies isn’t easy. The Latics aren’t eve the biggest club in Greater Manchester, let alone the wider community of English football. They have enjoyed success over the years, though, in both big competitions and smaller ones. They also missed out on the League Cup in the 2005-2006 season when losing 4-0 to neighbours Manchester United in the final at the Millennium Stadium.

FA Cup

In some ways, it is quietly remarkable that Wigan Athletic managed to win the FA Cup. On the one hand, any team could theoretically win it, but in reality the majority of FA Cup wins go to the biggest clubs in the land. In the four years before Wigan won it, the winners were Chelsea, Chelsea, Manchester City and Chelsea. In the four years after Wigan’s win the victors were Arsenal, Arsenal, Manchester United and Arsenal. Whilst it is obviously coincidence that there were two wins for a London club followed by victory for a Manchester club and then the same London club winning it again, it shows the strength of the usual winners.

Not only does the nature of the clubs normally winning the FA Cup tell its own story, the fact that Wigan Athletic actually got relegated out of the Premier League in the season that they won it confirms it. It is worth noting that the Manchester City that Wigan Athletic defeated in the final was the post-takeover Manchester City, which would go on to dominate the English game. It made the victory both sweeter and even more impressive.

Here is a look at Wigan’s FA Cup win, with the Latics’ score first:

Season	Opposition	Score
2012-2013	Manchester City	1-0

Other Noteworthy Trophies

In the season after winning the FA Cup, Wigan Athletic lost in the Community Shield to the Premier League winners Manchester United. The club has enjoyed some success in other competitions over the years that would absolutely not be considered noteworthy to the likes of Manchester United but that were widely enjoyed by the supporters. Here is a look at those successes including who they came against, where that information is available:

The Associate Members’ Cup and the Football League Trophy is essentially the same competition by a different name. In both instances teams had to make their way to the Northern Area final and the Southern Area final before appearing in the overall final of the competition. Wigan Athletic defeated Mansfield Town on penalties in the Northern Area final in 1985, then Wrexham 5-2 on aggregate in 1989.