PAUL JEWELL could mockingly talk about his club’s “crisis” being averted after his Wigan Athletic reserve side took a deserved place in the Carling Cup quarter-finals, but for Newcastle United and Graeme Souness, their manager, that word will be reverberating around Tyneside for days to come.

The contingent of travelling support, some 6,000 strong, stayed in their seats after the game chanting “Souness out” among unrepeatable protests.

It was not simply the result — a solitary and controversial 88th-minute penalty from David Connolly was all that separated the teams — but rather the manner of Newcastle’s capitulation that will have worried Souness’s employers, even allowing that Michael Owen was out injured.

“This is the most angry I’ve been as Newcastle manager,” Souness said. “Six or seven thousand people have travelled from Tyneside tonight to watch a game of football in which they thought we had a great chance of going through. We didn’t do it for them.

“The one thing players should be able to guarantee is they will give 100 per cent every time they go out there, but in the first half we didn’t give that. The best team won, the best team should have won by half-time. Every single person who travelled from Tyneside tonight we have let down. I understand the fans’ reaction and can’t complain.”

Connolly settled the tie, sweeping in his penalty after Robbie Elliott was harshly judged to have tugged the shirt of Jason Roberts, but what preceded that goal, in the words of Jewell, amounted to “a 1-0 hammering”.

“We played exceptionally well,” Jewell said, “and the only disappointment is that we didn’t win by four or five because we created 19 chances.

“Our problem is people keep forgetting we are Wigan. Some supporters are anxious just because we have lost to Arsenal and Spurs in our last two games, so at least we have now averted that ‘crisis’.”

History may yet show that failure to advance to the later stages of this competition against a Wigan team fielding just one outfield player from their previous starting XI was the beginning of the end for Souness. Even he had to concede that his team was guilty of complacency when greeted by a team sheet packed with unfamiliar opposition names. “We talked about that,” the manager said. “Some didn’t heed the warning.”

The visiting team should have been well aware of what Souness was talking about inside the opening three minutes, the time it took Wigan to create three chances.

By the sixteenth minute Shay Given was scurrying, at full stretch, to keep out a superb 20-yard strike by Lee McCulloch and, before the interval, the goalkeeper saved a goal-bound chip from the same striker, Elliott cleared Matt Jackson’s header off the line and Given pulled off an even more stunning double save to deny McCulloch and Connolly in quick succession.

With the uninterested Lee Bowyer removed at half-time, matters briefly threatened to improve for Newcastle with Scott Parker shooting just wide and Emre Belözoglu hitting the foot of the post midway through the period. But Wigan were still by far the more likely winners, Gary Teale’s runs down the right frequently causing panic in the Newcastle defence, and only Alan Mahon will be able to explain how he blasted a chance set up by Teale into the side netting when it looked easier to score.

When Roberts hit the woodwork with a 78th-minute header, Wigan looked to be facing extra time until their stroke of good fortune took them through to the quarter- final stage, equalling their best run in the competition. After the goal, there was the briefest Newcastle rally and a rare save from Mike Pollitt to keep out an equaliser from Nolberto Solano. Too little too late for United and, possibly, Souness.

WIGAN ATHLETIC (4-4-2): M Pollitt — R Taylor, M Jackson, E Thome (sub: S Henchoz, 30min), S McMillan (sub: L Baines, 46) — G Teale, J Skoko, A Mahon, A Johansson (sub: J Roberts, 68) — L McCulloch, D Connolly. Substitutes not used: D Francis, J Bullard. Booked: Skoko.

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-2): S Given — P Ramage, J-A Boumsong, R Elliott, C N’Zogbia — N Solano, L Bowyer (sub: M Brittain, 46), S Parker, Emre Belözoglu (sub: A Faye, 70) — A Shearer, A Luque (sub: M Chopra, 57). Substitutes not used: S Harper, L Clark. Booked: Emre.

Referee: S Bennett.