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Uwe Rosler takes to the main stage at Wigan today and faces the club we fans want to beat more than anyone in the league. Not an easy task for the German to turn a team around from losing their last six to then beating out local rivals in the space of seven days, yet the signs from mid-week were positive.
During those poorly refereed 90 minutes in Slovenia a Wigan side actually kept the ball on the ground and passed it around. We looked dangerous going forward with pace and guile as players start to show their talents that we all know they had. The left hand side duet of Roger Espionza and Jean Beausejour was fantastic, a massive positive along with seeing the return to his cunning best of Callum McManaman.
Signs are good, the noise coming out of the squad is good.
The dressing room that ha apparently become fractious under Coyle's training and coaching could be starting to pull in one direction. I am not saying that all the things that were wrong under Coyle had suddenly become fantastic, but things are heading the right way, or so far so good; lets not jump the gun here.
The question we have to pose to Rosler now is what team to do you start with against Bolton Wanderers? The gaffer had returning options of James McClean, Ivan Ramis, Will Keane and Grant Holt to contend with. While the exceptional performances by the players in Slovenia must be giving the gaffer a pleasant sort of headache.
Bolton and Dougie Freedman have the returning faces of Marc Davies and Josh Vela to add to a side which beat Doncaster Rovers last weekend 3-0 at the Reebook Stadium. In the run up to this game Freedman has been talking about the situation Latics find themselves in after the Bolton manager took over a side in a similar position last season.
As it stand going into the game, both teams sit on 22 points in 15th and 16th in the League. A win today and both teams will rise to 14th. Not a massive jump, but it means that they don't start to become adrift from the teams in the middle of the pack.
It is a worrying though that Wigan are only five points of a relegation place, and with Sheffield Wednesday to come in mid-week that gap could become less if we fail to win our two games before next weekend. However if we do win both games in the next four days, Wigan would climb to 11th in the table and be only five points behind 6th place Leeds United.
That shows you how tight the table is in the Championship, and it is time that we (the fans) got behind the lads and pushed them on. Lets make some noise today and be the true 12 man we can be.
Keep the Faith!