Middlesbrough opened the new Championship season against Luton Town in what proved to be a highly entertaining blockbuster which resulted in 6 goals scored and a 3-3 result at the end of the night at Luton’s Kenilworth Road.
It was certainly a lively start to Boro’s new manager, Jonathan Woodgate’s tenure at the club and his pre-season promise of bringing more entertaining and attacking football to the north-east outfit looked like being fulfilled straight away.
Since that point against The Hatters though, things have gone south for Middlesbrough as they’ve lost their subsequent 3 matches in all competitions which include two defeats in the Championship and an early League Cup exit.
A 1-0 loss at home to Brentford and a 1-0 reverse away at Blackburn Rovers on the weekend weren’t the start that Boro boss, Woodgate, would have had in mind when he took over from former coach, Tony Pulis, and to rub further salt into their wound, Middlesbrough suffered a League Cup defeat to League Two side, Crewe Alexandra on penalties.
The hosts are therefore in desperate need of a win to help steady the ship.
Onto Wigan Athletic, and although The Latics registered an opening day 3-2 home win against newly relegated, Cardiff City, their results have also nose-dived in dramatic fashion afterwards as the visitors have lost their last 3 matches on the trot in all competitions.
The relatively short trip to face Lancashire rivals, Preston North End, resulted in a heavy 3-0 defeat for Wigan and their week was about to get worse when they too made an early exit from the League Cup as they were bundled out by struggling Stoke City in a 1-0 defeat on home turf at their DW Stadium.
On Saturday, Wigan Athletic entertained Leeds United at the DW Stadium and seemed to be holding their own against Marcelo Bielsa’s side until their midfielder, Williams, was shown a second yellow card and received his marching orders halfway through the first half.
This proved to be the turning point as Wigan slumped to a third defeat on the trot as they eventually lost 2-0 to their Yorkshire visitors, so The Latics are also in need of picking up something from this clash on Tuesday night too.
With neither side in sparkling form right now, Middlesbrough and Wigan could cancel each other out at the Riverside Stadium.