West Brom v Wigan preview – Victory needed to keep heat on top two
While promotion rivals continue to dig deep for victories, Albion must keep up the pressure in hope that sooner or later, others will stumble.
Like a marathon runner desperately trying to overtake on the outside, the Baggies will be wondering where the top two are finding their reserves of energy from.
Over the weekend, both Norwich and Leeds scored late winners to keep the gap over Darren Moore’s side intact.
But football is not like running, where being on the shoulder can have its advantages. Points on the board are far more desirable.
Fans will no doubt look at today’s fixture list and notice that, on paper, Blackburn and Nottingham Forest should be tougher opponents than Wigan Athletic, who arrive at The Hawthorns with three defeats in a row and no goals from those games.
“We’re at our lowest point in my time at the club,” admitted Latics boss Paul Cook.
But Moore has ordered his team to ignore everything that’s going on elsewhere.
For him, December is too early to be looking at other results, and taking their eyes off the ball in this busy period could ruin all the good work of the past few weeks.
“It’s about what we do here at West Brom,” he said. “We focus on what we do here.”
Nobody at Albion will be taking Wigan lightly, especially after what happened at the DW Stadium earlier this season.
This is the first game of the second half of the season, and an early chance for revenge over Cook’s men, who beat the Baggies 1-0 in October thanks to a late Josh Windass winner.
It was a feisty encounter which saw nine yellow cards, two of which were handed to Jake Livermore.
But Albion are a different prospect now, and seven games unbeaten since switching to a back four.
Having removed Gareth Barry before the hour mark on Saturday, Moore could name the same starting XI as the last two matches, provided nobody picked up any injuries in Christmas Day training.
Victory is a must to keep the heat on those above.
Likely line-up
Subs: Myhill, Mears, Brunt, Morrison, Harper, Sako, Robson-Kanu.
Wigan (4-2-3-1): Walton, James, Kipre, Burn, Connolly, Evans, Morsy, Byrne, Windass, Roberts, Grigg
