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It cost the former Wales defender his third defeat since taking over Fulham in April as Wigan, who have now won their last seven games, were full value for their win.
"It's nothing to do with us what team Fulham choose to field," said delighted Wigan manager Paul Jewell.
"All we can do is go out and win and that is what we have done. I'm pleased because we did ourselves justice.
"We'll enjoy this but tomorrow we'll start preparing for our League game at
Coventry."
Coleman defended his decision to field a weakened side and instead hit out at the fringe players who failed to grasp their opportunity.
Only two who started last Saturday's 2-2 draw against Manchester City, Sylvain Legwinski and Junichi Inamoto, turned out.
"It's a major disappointment to go out of the competition," said Coleman. "We got what we deserved - nothing. I decided to give some players a rest but we still had enough talent out there to have got something from this. It's the first time I've witnessed a lack of effort and togetherness from my team since I took over.
"Wigan wanted it more than we did. We couldn't have complained if we had lost 3-0."
It was a case of déjà vu as Wigan put Fulham out of the competition for the second time in 10 months with Ellington scoring both goals in the 2-1 fourth round win last December.
The former Bristol Rovers man struck 17 minutes from the end of an eventful tie when he met Andy Liddell's accurate cross from the right to send last season's quarter-finalists into the third round.
Fulham have only themselves to blame. Facundo Sava, the Argentina striker, had enough chances to have scored a hat-trick in the first 45 minutes alone.
The Fulham marksman used his height but shaved the post in the 27th minute before forcing John Filan into his first serious save with a powerful header from close range.
There were also sighs of relief from home fans when Andreas Stolcers raced through in the 64th minute with only Filan to beat.
He looked odds on to score but the Australian keeper produced a dramatic save with his leg to deny the Latvian. It proved a costly miss for Fulham as Ellington powered up field to settle an absorbing tie witha superb header.
Report from THE GUARDIAN - http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,1527,1048580,00.html
JUST as losing is the habit that managers dread the most, winning is the one that they hope their players become addicted to and Wigan Athletic seem to have become hooked on the latter. An upset was expected at the JJB Stadium last night and, albeit against a depleted Fulham team, the Nationwide League first division leaders duly obliged to progress to the third round of the Carling Cup. It was the Lancashire club’s seventh victory in succession and, on a night of Lancashire success in this trophy, Wigan’s was hugely deserved.
The pity was that fewer than 5,000 people witnessed Nathan Ellington’s spectacular winner that eliminated their Barclaycard Premiership opponents from this competition for a second consecutive season. Ellington, who scored two goals in that fourth-round match, was once more the pivotal figure, his header in the 73rd minute settling a muted tie. So has leading the first division, with the prospect of a second successive promotion, failed to convince Wigan folk that football is their preferred sporting option?
“In truth it was a flat game, but this is our third home game in a week. That’s a lot of money for people to find,” Paul Jewell, the Wigan manager, said. “I’m just glad there was no extra time ahead of our game (away to Coventry City) on Saturday.”
Fulham retained their composure during what scarcely could be described as an impassioned encounter. Andreas Stolcers fluffed their best chance of the match when the Latvia player allowed John Filan, the Wigan goalkeeper, to thwart him with his feet. It was going to take a special finish to beat an inspired Mark Crossley and it arrived when Andy Liddell made ground down the right and delivered a telling cross for Ellington, leaping above his marker, to angle a mighty header across goal and into the top corner from about 14 yards. The irony was that Crossley, cantering forward for a last-minute corner, almost scored with a deflected volley that Filan pushed aside.
“We were second-best all over the pitch and this is a major disappointment,” Chris Coleman, the Fulham manager, said.
Report from THE TIMES - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-828768,00.html
Nathan Ellington's fifth goal of the season enabled First Division leaders Wigan to dump Premiership Fulham out of the competition for the second successive season.
In December, they achieved the feat in the fourth round when leaders of the Second Division. West Brom and Manchester City were other Premiership victims of Paul Jewell's side and few will relish a trip to the JJB Stadium this time around.
Geoff Horsfield, Wigan's £1 million signing from Birmingham City, fired the first shot in anger, a 20-yard drive which went narrowly wide. Horsfield was much closer in the 20th minute, meeting Jimmy Bullard's left-wing cross with a firm volley which Fulham goalkeeper Mark Crossley scrambled clear. From the corner, Ian Breckin scooped an excellent chance over the bar from 12 yards.
Fulham included only two of those who had started their Premiership match on Saturday, and three teenagers were in the ranks. Facundo Sava shaved a Wigan post with a header from a right-wing cross by one of the youngsters, Malik Buari, 19. Sava then, from the same source, directed his header straight at goalkeeper John Filan.
Wigan responded and Ellington, receiving a neat pass from Lee McCulloch, drew a fingertip save from Crossley. Moments later Bullard was inches wide with a 25-yard drive.
Fulham should have taken the lead in the 38th minute when another enterprising cross from Buari sent Andreas Stolcers clear. With only Filan to beat, the Latvian bundled the ball wide of the far post.
The start of the second half brought a continuation of the ebb and flow.
Andy Melville's shirt tug on Horsfield as he tried to break clear down the right wing showed signs of desperation. Bullard's free-kick came to nothing, as did a short corner soon after with the home side again putting the visitors under pressure.
In the 58th minute Tony Dinning fired in a fierce 20-yard drive which Crossley was at full stretch to turn round a post.
Five minutes later, at the other end, Stolcers had another excellent chance, when he was sent clear by Mark Pembridge, but his attempt to guide the ball home was thwarted by Filan's outstretched left boot.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 73rd minute when Andy Liddell crossed from the right and Ellington rose majestically at the far post to loop a header over Crossley. In a desperate attempt to salvage the game, Crossley came forward for an injury-time corner but his shot from the edge of the area was saved by Filan.
Report from THE TELEGRAPH - http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2003/09/24/sfgwig24.xml
This was not a shock. Faced with a choice of the First Division leaders, who had won their last six games and had beaten Fulham in this competition and on this ground last season and a Premiership side shot through with reserve players and a lack of commitment outside London, there was only one horse to back.
Even the manner of Wigan's victory had a certain predictability about it. Nathan Ellington, who had scored five times against Premiership opposition and twice against Fulham in last season's run to the quarter-finals of the League Cup, headed home a beautifully-struck cross from Andy Liddle in the 72nd minute to fashion a victory which Fulham's manager, Chris Coleman, thought should have been more emphatic.
Coleman had made nine changes from the side unfortunate not to have beaten Manchester City on Saturday and some of his squad would have been unfamiliar even to inhabitants of the Fulham Palace Road - two of the substitutes were not listed as contracted players on the club's official website.
"The bottom line is we had enough experience and quality in that team to do a lot better than we did. The problem was not selection it was performance," Coleman argued.
He could have pointed out that Facundo Sava shaved John Filan's post or that Andreas Stolcers squandered glaring opportunities in either half or even that his goalkeeper, Mark Crossley, forced a swift reaction save from his opposite number as he went up for a corner in the desperate closing moments. "We were not unlucky. You should not have to rely on goals from your goalkeeper," Coleman said. "If we had been 3-0 losers, we could not have complained."
The decisive moment was probably Filan's save from Stolcers when the Latvian was clean through midway through the second half, a save which was followed by Coleman substituting Malik Buari, who hitherto had been Fulham's most effective provider of crosses.
This should not obscure the fact that Wigan dominated possession, especially through central midfield, where Tony Dinning and Jimmy Bullard impressed, and worked the right flank cleverly but this was not a typical cup upset in which the lower-league team hurls itself at its opponents. It was a measured and at times highly-inventive display. Geoff Horsfield saw a close-range volley wonderfully turned aside by Crossley, while Ellington demonstrated his quality with a high-class, curling shot from distance which flew perhaps a yard wide.
The one disappointment was that so few came to the JJB Stadium to see it - 2,000 fewer than witnessed last year's defeat of Fulham - proving that, despite the club's rapid ascent, Wigan is still a rugby town. One fan said that if the tie had been played at Springfield Park, the ground would have seemed full. True enough, but Wigan have moved on since those days.
Wigan Athletic (4-4-2): Filan; Eaden, Jackson, Breckin, Kennedy; Liddell, Bullard, Dinning, McCulloch; Ellington, Horsfield (Roberts, 73). Substitutes not used: Teale, Mitchell, Flynn, Walsh (gk).
Fulham: (4-4-1-1) Crossley; Leacock, Green, Melville, Djetou; Buari (Boa Morte, 66), Legwinski, Inamoto (Rehman, 57), Pembridge; Stolcers (Pratley, 83); Sava. Substitutes not used: Davis, Beasant (gk).
Referee: A Kaye (Yorkshire)
Report from THE INDEPENDANT - http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/nationwide/story.jsp?story=446453
OTHER RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY