Wigan Athletic Preview

By Mark Heys
December 8 2007

After the euphoria of Thursday night's UEFA Cup win over Red Star Belgrade attention now turns to Bolton Wanderers next game which is in the Premiership against local rivals Wigan Athletic on Sunday afternoon.

The Wanderers became the first ever British team to conquer Belgrade on their home turf and it was yet another fantastic achievement for Gary Megson's side but attention now turns to the Reebok Stadium showdown against the Latics.

Both sides are still sitting in and amongst the relegation dogfight and Bolton currently remain out of the bottom three despite going down 4-0 to Liverpool in the last game a week ago.

Tommorows opponents Wigan faired a little better in their last game when they came back from a goal down against Manchester City to draw 1-1 courtesy of midfielder Paul Scharner but ex-Chelsea defender Mario Melchiot was sent off late on.

Wanderers boss Megson is likely to welcome back Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf, Kevin Davies, Kevin Nolan, Andy O'Brien, Ivan Campo and Ricardo Gardner after they where missing for the trip to Europe in midweek.

Ali Al-Habsi, Jlloyd Samuel, Lubomir Michalik, Gary Speed, Daniel Braaten, Christian Wilhelmsson and Stelios Giannakopoulos are those likely to be replaced.

Belgrade hero Gavin McCann hopes to keep his place in the side after impressing over the last two matches but fellow midfielder Blerim Dzemaili is still short of match fitness having played for the reserves early last week.

New Wigan manager Steve Bruce will be without the suspended Melchiot for the short journey across Lancashire and goalkeeper Carlo Nash who has a broken leg.

Bolton-born goalkeeper Mike Pollitt is hopeful of being involved against his boyhood idols but there is doubts over the fitness of strikers Emile Heskey and Antoine Sibierski.

LAST TIME WE MET:

07/04/2007 WIGAN ATHLETIC 1 (Hunt OG) BOLTON WANDERERS 3 (Anelka, Teimourian 2)

BOLTON: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Abdoulaye Faye, Abdoulaye Meite, Tal Ben-Haim (Ricardo Gardner), David Thompson (Idan Tal), Andranik Teimourian, Gary Speed, Kevin Davies, Nicolas Anelka (Stelios Giannakopoulos), El-Hadji Diouf

SUBS NOT USED: Henrik Pedersen, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

WIGAN: John Filan, Ryan Taylor, Matt Jackson, Fitz Hall, Leighton Baines, Antonio Valencia, Paul Scharner, Josip Skoko (David Cotterill), Lee McCulloch, Emile Heskey, Caleb Folan (Henri Camara)

SUBS NOT USED: Kevin Kilbane, David Unsworth, Carlo Nash (GK)

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

John Ball, Malcolm Barrass, Brian Bromley, Paul Comstive, Walter Crook, Ernie Corfield, Wayne Entwistle, Simon Farnworth, Gareth Farrelly, Dave Felgate, Per Frandsen, Scott Green, Ken Grieves, Ralph Gubbins, Derek Hennin, John Higgins, Paul Jones, Tony Kelly, David Lee, Paul Lodge, Dave McKearney, Tommy Neill, Neil Redfearn, Bruce Rioch, Ian Seddon, Geoff Sleight, Stuart Storer, Greg Strong, Steve Taylor, Emerson Thome, Chris Thompson, David Thompson, Gavin Ward, Stuart Whittaker, Roy Wilkinson, Tom Woodward.

DID YOU KNOW?:

Bolton approached Birmingham City earlier on this season as they looked into the possibility of making Steve Bruce their next manager. Birmingham turned down the approach and Bruce has since returned to Wigan.

Midfielder Andranik Teimourian scored his first Premiership goals for the Wanderers when these two sides met at the JJB Stadium back in April. The Iranian has since found opportunities hard to come by this season.

Wigan goalkeepers Carlo Nash and Mike Pollitt where both born in Bolton.

Current Latics player Antoine Sibierski turned his back on a move to Bolton following his release by Newcastle United last summer. Instead the Frenchman thought he would get more regular football with Wigan.