The two yellow cards dished out to the Ecuadorian winger deprived former Liverpool keeper Kirkland of a glorious return to Anfield, and his side of a famous, and deserved, victory.
That left Wigan manager Steve Bruce seething, as Valencia's first yellow card was for a dubious encroachment at a free-kick and the second for a slightly high tackle which had no bad intent.
Kirkland, who had played his part in keeping the Latics ahead until the last ten minutes with two world-class saves, is not after blood.
He simply wants Wiley, in this era of Respect, to show some of it for the Wigan players, whose toil and enterprise was blown away by the waft of the official's red card.
"Hopefully the ref will come out and admit he has made a mistake," said Kirkland.
"That's all you want, and if he does that fair enough. But we feel very hard done by.
"The first yellow was not a booking, Antonio did nothing wrong. The lad touched the ball and Antonio charged it down.
"But because of the commotion with all the Liverpool players, when all their hands went up, the ref's bottled the decision.
Tough
"They have a tough job, referees, but it was as clear as daylight that he shouldn't have been booked.
"It's difficult enough with 11 men at Anfield, never mind ten, and that was a big turning point."
Wigan were left to reflect on the quality of a display which for 80 minutes made a mockery of Liverpool's title ambitions.
The Latics have still to beat one of the so-called "big four" in their great Premier League adventure, but if they can keep up this level of football - and resist the inevitable overtures for strikers Emile Heskey and Amr Zaki - it is only a matter of time.
Heskey was ruled out of a possible shop-window outing at Anfield with a sciatic problem, but Zaki , who had also been a big doubt, seized his day on the big stage.
His first goal was a mixture of muscle and opportunism as he darted in to rob the dallying Daniel Agger and neatly slotted the ball home at the Kop end.
After Dirk Kuyt had fired in a barely-deserved equaliser, Zaki struck his second in first half injury time.
Comparisons have been made between the barrel-chested, 6ft 1in Egyptian and Alan Shearer, and the grace and power of his volleyed finish were certainly reminiscent of one of the Geordie hero's many Goal of the Season contenders.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, already weighing up a £3m move for Heskey in the January transfer window, knew he had to "keep an eye" on Zaki going into the game.
He will keeping two eyes on the player, on a year's loan from El Zamalek, after this impressive performance.
Kirkland, who also made an heroic effort to keep out Kuyt's 85th minute winner after former Manchester City man Albert Riera had levelled, could only watch and admire Zaki from the other end.
"That's what he does," said the big stopper. "Give him a chance and at the minute everything's going in for him. Hopefully he can continue to do that and we can tighten up at the back and keep a few clean sheets.
"His second goal was a great finish. He's top scorer in the league now and hopefully he can carry on, and if we can sort other things out we will be OK.
"He's different because all he has on his mind is scoring goals, and if he does that we will win more games than we lose.
"Amr is a physical handful and I am sure defenders hate playing against him.
"He runs a lot, he's a bit of a battering ram and he has scored eight goals in as many games, and hopefully can carry on doing that.
"He's the same in training - you don't notice him and then `Bang!' he's scored a goal."
WIGAN: Kirkland 8, Melchiot 7, Figueroa 5, Bramble 8, Scharner 7, de Ridder 8 (Kilbane 79), Cattermole 7, Palacios 8 (Koumas 90), Valencia 7, Kapo 7 (Brown 82), Zaki 9
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