Steve Bruce got the better of former Manchester United team-mate Roy Keane as Wigan dumped Sunderland out of the FA Cup.
The boyhood Newcastle supporter, who was denied victory over the Black Cats as Birmingham boss by Stern John's late strike back in August, saw his much-changed side coast into the fourth round at the Stadium of Light as the Wearsiders collapsed.
Both managers know there are more important things at stake this season than a cup run, but are equally well aware that nothing builds confidence like winning.
On that basis, Bruce headed back across the Pennines with a fresh injection of optimism; by contrast, Keane and the bulk of a crowd of just 20,821, many of whom headed for the exits long before the final whistle, did so anticipating a long, hard struggle for Barclays Premier League survival.
The fact that they contributed in no small part to Wigan's second 3-0 win of the campaign over them will not have been lost on the manager, who saw Paul Scharner benefit from non-existent marking to open the scoring on 19 minutes before loan signing Jonny Evans had to take the rap for Paul McShane's own goal after the break.
Substitute David Cotterill's beautifully-struck third was all his own work, but that will have been of little consolation to anyone in red and white.
Keane insisted before the game that he would field the strongest possible side in a competition which brought him four winners' medal as a player and three final defeats which still hurt.
With injuries and suspension limiting his choices, that meant five changes to the side which lost 1-0 at Blackburn in midweek as Evans renewed his acquaintance with the Stadium of Light, Nyron Nosworthy returned after eight games on the sidelines with a torn hamstring and midfielder Graham Kavanagh made his first appearance of the season for the club.
But if the Wearsiders were much-changed, Keane's selection was trumped by former Manchester United team-mate Bruce, who retained only four of the men who fought out a 1-1 draw at Liverpool in midweek.
That number was reduced to three within 15 minutes when midfielder Ryan Taylor limped off, but it was Bruce who was the happier manager as the teams headed for their respective dressing rooms at the break.
Wigan did so a goal to the good courtesy of Scharner's 19th-minute header, although the home defence left the Austrian criminally unmarked as Josip Skoko delivered a deep free-kick straight on to his forehead in front of goal.
It proved to be the only effort on target for either side in the opening 45 minutes.
Keane's makeshift front two of Daryl Murphy and Martyn Waghorn saw little of the ball, although Emile Heskey and, before he was stretchered off three minutes before the break, Newcastle old boy Antoine Sibierski were similarly under-employed at the other end.
Indeed, perhaps the biggest cheer of the opening period came when referee Mike Riley slipped and fell as he tried to avoid the ball.
The second half began inauspiciously for the home defence as Nosworthy and McShane could only get in each other's way as they attempted to clear former Black Cat Kevin Kilbane's long throw, with the result that neither made contact with the ball.
The home fans grew increasingly impatient as their efforts to drag themselves back into the game came to little, and the atmosphere worsened on 56 minutes when they fell further behind.
Evans left his backpass to Gordon woefully short and substitute Julius Aghahowa was in on goal - although McShane got to the ball first, he could only thump it into his own net.
Keane immediately replaced Dean Whitehead and Waghorn with Grant Leadbitter and Andy Cole, and saw the veteran striker play a part as Murphy had a 61st-minute shot deflected wide.
But Aghahowa shot across the face of goal three minutes later, but after Emmerson Boyce had blocked another Murphy effort, Bruce opted for change.
He withdrew striker Heskey to send on combative midfielder Michael Brown, but it was an earlier replacement, Cotterill, who sealed the win with a 76th-minute rocket.
Roy O'Donovan clipped the bar with a late overhead kick, but Sunderland might have lost even more heavily had Gordon not tipped substitute Michael Brown's injury-time shot on to the post.
