Sunderland's FA Cup campaign has ended at the first hurdle again this season, after a wretched home performance against Wigan.

Roy Keane surprised us all before the game by starting Nyron Nosworthy in defence for his first appearance since injuring his hamstring against Newcastle in November - although Nyron was playing in the right-back spot we all know he was uncomfortable in, with Paul McShane partnering the returning Jonny Evans at the back. Elswhere, Graham Kavanagh got his first start of the season for us in midfield, while Martyn Waghorn partnered Daryl Murphy up front.

The start of the game was tame at best, with the only bright spots coming when the Wigan physio nearly took his head off running into one of the goal net's supporting strings, before referee Mike Riley slipped and fell to the ground while trying to avoid being caught by a Danny Collins pass.

Wigan lost Ryan Taylor before the game was even a quarter of an hour old, but despite that change the Latics managed to keep control, and shortly after that they took the lead, when Josip Skoko's free kick found the unmarked Paul Scharner to head past Craig Gordon as our back four appeared to look like strangers, and not the back line that helped us win the Championship last season!

Sunderland did try to get straight back into the game, with Dean Whitehead trying to flick the ball onto Martyn Waghorn, but Mike Pollitt was on hand to collect the danger, as the Latics never really looked troubled by a Sunderland side that struggled to test Pollitt. Roy O'Donovan saw a cross cleared, before we wasted a free kick after Kavanagh was felled by Antoine Sibierski.

We had a penalty appeal turned down when Kieran Richardson went down under a Scharner challenge in the box on 37 minutes, shortly before Sibeirski was stretchered off - but despite having to use two subs in the first half, the visitors went into the break 1-0 up, and that lead never looked like being put in question.

Our cause wasn't helped ten minutes after the restart when Paul McShane somehow managed to put the ball in his own net while he was trying to clear the ball - a real howler from a defender whose performances had already been coming in for some criticism in recent weeks.

Wigan killed the game off with quarter of an hour remaining after some more bad defending, with David Cotterill was allowed to run with the ball unchallenged for 15 yards before smashing a 20 yarder past Craig Gordon - signalling an exodus for most of the 20,000 crowd that turned up to see this shambolic performance at the Stadium of Light.

Towards the end we did have a few more cracks on goal, with O'Donovan coming close to Jonny Evans' cross, before the Irishman forced another save with an overhead kick, as Gordon had to deny Michael Brown as Wigan pushed for a fourth. Ultimately though, the result was never in doubt after Scharner's first half goal, as Wigan booked their place in the fourth round of the competition.

Sunderland: Gordon, Nosworthy, McShane, Evans, Collins, O'Donovan, Kavanagh, Whitehead (sub 57, Leadbitter), Richardson (sub 73, Connolly), Waghorn (sub 57, Cole), Murphy. Subs: Fulop, Anderson.

Wigan: Pollitt, Boyce, Scharner, Granqvist, Kilbane, Olembe, Koumas, Skoko, Taylor (sub 14, Cotterill), Heskey (sub 71, Brown), Sibierski (sub 41, Aghahowa). Subs: Kirkland, Valencia.