Wigan Athletic chief hails 'amazing win' at bogey team Cambridge United

It looked like Latics would suffer their third defeat at the Abbey Stadium in the space of seven months when Brandon Njoku latched on to a long goal kick to score with 13 minutes left.

But Thelo Aasgaard bagged his seventh goal of the campaign - and his third in his last three matches - to send the FA Cup second-round tie into an additional half-an-hour.

And with only a couple of minutes remaining - and penalties looming on the horizon - substitute Jonny Smith repeated his trick from the first-round win at Carlisle and scored Latics' second goal to seal it.

"It's an amazing result for us," acknowledged Maloney. "It's a place we've found it very hard to come away with anything from in recent games, and it was a real cup-tie.

"Having gone 1-0 down, the resilience of the players was really good, and I'm very happy.

"Even in the first half, I was quite happy, because normally when we come down here, we've gone behind very early.

"So for the first 10-15 minutes, we were determined to be less risky in certain areas, because it was quite tough conditions - for both sets of players - to play.

"We had a lot more chances in the second half, but once again we had to rely on Sam Tickle to make an amazing save in the 90 minutes, and then again in extra-time.

"I was absolutely furious with the goal we conceded, it's just a long goal-kick that was flicked on and, all of a sudden, they're in.

"But we were creating chances at the other end and I thought we deserved to get the equaliser and take it into extra-time.

"The only thing that mattered today was getting through to the next round, and we need to remember how difficult a place this has been for us to come.

"I'm well chuffed to be through to the next round, and I can't say anything negative about the players, I thought they were all brilliant."

After an opening 45 minutes that could best be described as eventless, the game sprung into life within two minutes of the restart.

Jonny Smith sent a trademark shot just over before Dale Taylor saw a shot parried and then gathered by Vicente Reyes.

Cambridge had a rare chance when Korey Smith dragged his shot past Sam Tickle's left-hand post.

Tickle then produced an incredible save to keep out a powerful flick header from Watts that was destined for the top corner.

Cambridge took the lead 13 minutes from time when Njoku latched on to a long goal kick and prodded it past Tickle.

But Latics were back on level terms within seven minutes through top scorer Aasgaard, who rifled home from 12 yards.

Another brilliant save from Tickle prevented Smith from giving Cambridge a second lead in the second period of extra time.

And with seconds remaining, Jonny Smith’s cross from the right appeared to go all the way into the far corner of the net without anyone in the middle getting a touch.