A relegation battle royale is up next when fourth from bottom club Wigan Athletic play host to second from bottom Bolton Wanderers at the DW Stadium with a precious three points at stake for both teams.
Wigan suffered a third defeat on the trot in the Championship during the week when they lost 3-0 away at Lancashire rivals, Blackburn Rovers, which followed previous defeats at Derby County and relegation rivals, Reading.
However, it should be noted that Wigan have played three away matches on the trot (which they’ve all lost), which certainly hasn’t helped their cause, but The Latics return to their DW Stadium this Saturday to face Bolton Wanderers.
Wigan possess a pretty reasonable home record considering their current plight, which stands at W8 D6 L4 scored 20 conceded 17, and Paul Cook’s side are unbeaten in their last five matches on home soil.
Back-to-back wins against Aston Villa and QPR were followed by draws with Stoke City, Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough, so the hosts may well fancy their chances of getting at least a point, if not all three, against Bolton here today.
Onto Bolton Wanderers, and the visitors still remain in the bottom three of the Championship following their midweek 2-0 loss at home to Sheffield Wednesday as The Trotters failed to build upon their 2-1 home win against Millwall last Saturday.
It seems a case of ‘all-or-nothing’ for Bolton as they’ve secured the occasional win in recent weeks with victories over Birmingham City (away) and Millwall (home), but in between times, the Lancashire outfit have suffered too many defeats and they head into this clash having lost four of their last five matches in the second tier.
Defeats to Norwich City, Leeds United, Swansea City and the aforementioned Sheffield Wednesday mean that the visitors remain second from bottom in the table and seven points adrift of today’s hosts, Wigan Athletic and safety.
Bolton actually started the season in positive fashion away from home as they secured back-to-back wins at West Brom 2-1 and a 1-0 win at Reading along with a point at Preston North End in a 2-2 draw with these results seeming light years ago.
However, since then, The Trotters have managed just one further win on the road from their subsequent 15 matches on their travels, losing 11 of these and failing to score in nine of these 15 matches also.
Out of two struggling teams, Wigan Athletic look the more likely to grab the points in this one.