THE fight for Barclays Premier League survival will give way to a quest for FA Cup glory this weekend for James McArthur.
It is a welcome reprieve for the Wigan Athletic midfielder, even if the shine has been taken off the build-up as a result of Tuesday's damaging league defeat by Swansea City which left his side three points from safety and perilously close to failing in their annual relegation escape act.
The discomfort of that result is felt more acutely by McArthur since he had the chance to put Wigan 3-1 ahead at the DW Stadium, only to miss from close range. Later in the encounter his misunderstanding with team-mate Shaun Maloney allowed Swansea to go 3-2 up, leaving Wigan on their knees.
McArthur trusts that victory over Manchester City in Saturday's final will give fresh impetus to Wigan's fight for league survival, with matches against Arsenal on Tuesday and Aston Villa the following weekend still offering a chance of a way out of their predicament.
"The cup final is a good distraction," said the former Hamilton Academical player. "All the fans have been looking forward to it for weeks. It's all they have been speaking about.
"We have been trying to concentrate on the league form in an attempt to build momentum and get points. But now we can look forward to Saturday because it is a massive game for the club."
However, McArthur is aware that putting a silver lining on a season in which Wigan lose their Premier League status will still be considered a disaster. That will not be assuaged even if the club do find themselves playing in Europe next season, the club likely to enter the Europa League as City have already attained a Champions League berth.
Perhaps the fact few give the lowly side any chance against a City side assembled through such largesse will ease the pressure they have been under of late. Yet McArthur has only been affected by one thought as he prepares to step out at Wembley: "Winning."
The Scotland internationalist is aware of how rare it is for Wigan to be involved in such an occasion. "We want to win the cup because we are never going to get a better chance. A club like Wigan doesn't make the FA Cup final very often," he said.
Lifting trophies is not the incentive which brings players to clubs like Wigan, though, and McArthur remains grounded as he reflects on the career path which has brought him to this point. "I have been down here for a few years, and because of that I probably think more about the future and where I want to be," he said.
"We have all come from different backgrounds. Myself and James McCarthy have come from Hamilton, Gary Caldwell has been at Hibs. We've all seen different sides of the game. We'll always remember where we have come from.
"Every time myself and James McCarthy do an interview, we always seem to mention Billy Reid [the former Hamilton manager]. That's simply because we understand the major influence he has had on our careers. Ronnie MacDonald, the former Hamilton chairman, is another. He was the one who signed us as professional players."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article