West Ham left it late before booking their place in round four with a scrappy win over First Division promotion rivals Wigan.
After 80 largely forgettable minutes Hammers finally flexed their muscles in the closing stages thanks to goals from Hayden Mullins and David Connolly.
But they still had to endure a late scare as Wayne Quinn put through his own net to give the Latics hope of a stoppage time shock.
Both Irons goals were well executed, in contrast with much of what had preceeded them.
First Connolly found substitute Neil Mellor, whose first touch since coming on set up Mullins perfectly to run into the box and calmly slot the ball beyond John Filan in the home goal.
It was Mullins' first goal for West Ham, and will hopefully go some way towards cancelling out his unfortunate own goal at West Brom a month ago.
Four minutes later the game seemed dead and buried thanks to a fine piece of individual skill from Connolly.
After chasing a long ball down the left channel, the striker did brilliantly to evade the challenges of Nicky Eaden and Ian Breckin.
But there was still plenty to do as he kept his composure and moved across the face of goal waiting for the right moment to shoot low past Filan.
Robbie Stockdale's poor defensive header in the last minute allowed Jason de Vos to cross, but there should have been no danger until Quinn's attempted clearance looped into the roof of the net.
Published Monday January 5, 2004
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