Brighton keeper Walton helps Wigan cause huge cup upset

On-loan Brighton goalkeeper Christian Walton kept a clean sheet as Wigan caused a huge cup shock by beating Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup fifth round last night.
Christian WaltonChristian Walton
Christian Walton

City, the runaway Premier League leaders, saw their hopes of a quadruple ended as Will Grigg scored the only goal of the game on 79 minutes.

Walton starred in goal for the Latics and made excellent first-half saves to deny Ilkay Gündogan and Sergio Aguero.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

City were reduced to ten men when Fabian Delph was shown a straight red card for a foul on Max Power on the stroke of half-time. The visitors still dominated possession in the second period but were kept at bay by the Latics, before Grigg capitalised on a mistake by Kyle Walker to score the only goal.

Walton, on a season-long loan to Wigan from Albion, tweeted afterwards: "What an unbelievable night!! Under the lights with a fantastic support! The magic of the Fa Cup."

The 22-year-old has kept 12 clean sheets in 18 appearances for the Latics and was nominated for League One player of the month for both December and January.

Wigan are third in League One, three points behind leaders Blackburn with three games in hand.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Walton joined Albion from Plymouth in 2013. He has made four appearances for the Seagulls and had loan spells at Bury, Plymouth, Luton and Southend before joining Wigan for the 2017/18 campaign.

Keep up with all the top football news and transfer gossip from England, Scotland and beyond with footballwire.co.uk