English League Cup semi-finals, first legs/Wigan Athletic 1 Arsenal 0: The lights briefly went out on Wigan early in the second half last night, though the prospects for their season shine brighter than ever this morning.
The Latics are on the brink of their first major final today, a narrow lead chiselled from this first leg upon which to cling at Highbury in a fortnight's time, with the Millennium Stadium within sight.
The pessimists had this as nothing more than a season soured by relegation; realism now suggests it far likelier that Wiganers could end this campaign revelling in European qualification.
This was a spluttering mishmash of a game, though the locals could not care less. Only 12,181 were present to see the hosts respond best to the gloomy mid-match hiatus - which extended for 10 minutes following a power cut which knocked out the entire town - with the Latics duly rewarded.
Pascal Chimbonda fed Gary Teale down the right, with the Scot's cross headed powerfully down and through Manuel Almunia's weak attempt to block by the debutant Paul Scharner.
Ineffective throughout, Arsenal may rethink their team selection for the second leg as they attempt to claw back this deficit - though, for the moment, the momentum is Wigan's.
So much about this club's inaugural campaign in the top flight has caught the imagination that the locals have been pinching themselves all season.
The theme from Gladiator had boomed rather ominously around the empty seats prior to kick-off, the apparent lack of appetite for this fixture after a festive period spent gorging on the trappings of life near the top of the English Premiership expressed in a virtual no-show.
Those who were present made themselves raucously heard, with whoops greeting every home foray into the unfamiliar Arsenal ranks, though at no stage did this feel like a landmark event in the Latics' brief existence as a league club.
Perhaps weariness has crept into the locals, punch drunk as they must be at the prolonged period of success instigated at their club, though tiredness is starting to cramp Paul Jewell's options too.
The eager squad which breathed so much life into the upper reaches of the title race before Christmas has been gasping of late - injuries and the African Nations Cup stretching already thin resources.
There were only 15 outfield players from whom Jewell could choose last night, though, by the interval, he was down to 13 with the ranks of walking wounded in the treatment room ever more swollen.
David Connolly was the first to hobble off here, hamstrung in the opening half-hour and dejected as he trudged away. He will be missed with Henri Camara absent with Senegal, though the sight of Lee McCulloch - this club's longest serving player and the personification of Jewell's industrious approach - limping off with a groin complaint was just as disturbing.
The Austria international Paul Scharner replaced the Scot, a centre half asked to play in midfield on his debut.
Wigan looked to be building up a head of steam before the floodlight failure after 55 minutes and four seconds rather checked what momentum the hosts were generating.
The players' re-emergence at least allowed the tannoy announcer to rally those present with a boisterous cry of "This is the Carling Cup semi-final".
In truth, this was an evening which demanded the occasional reminder of what was actually at stake until Scharner's late intervention.
WIGAN ATHLETIC: Pollitt, Chimbonda, De Zeeuw, Henchoz, McMillan, Teale, Bullard, Kavanagh, McCulloch (Scharner 33), Roberts, Connolly (Johansson 22). Subs not used: Filan, Jackson, Francis. Booked: Henchoz. Goal: Scharner 78.
ARSENAL: Almunia, Gilbert (Larsson 75), Senderos, Djourou, Cygan, Ljungberg, Flamini, Silva, Hleb, Owusu-Abeyie (Lupoli 72), Reyes (Fabregas 72). Subs not used: Poom, Bendtner.
Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire).
