Wigan face struggling Barnsley

Latics' trip to Oakwell was a memorable one when Owen Coyle's Wigan completed a 4-0 thrashing of the Tykes on the opening day of the season in front of 2307 traveling fans that have arguably made the loudest noise at Oakwell this season. Goals from FA Cup hero Ben Watson, Grant Holt, Leon Barnett and Shaun Maloney gave Latics the opening 3 points of the season in Coyle's first competitive game in charge of the FA Cup Holders.

Wigan sit 9th in the league, 7 points off 6th after Reading's 3-1 at Loftus Road on Sunday but with 2 games in hand, they sit better off than the chasing pack with Yeovil at home still to play, if Latics' take advantage of their games in hand they will fire up 7th a point off the Royals but with Leicester at home to be rearranged due to Latics' involvement in the cup, Wigan will still be behind come the Yeovil Game. Uwe Rosler's side are unbeaten in the last 5 winning 3, and facing the Championship's 2nd bottom club, the German will look to dominate the game but will know they are not to be underestimated.

However Danny Wilson and his side find themselves in a very poor position, sitting 23rd in the league 5 points off safety but like Wigan have only played 29 games. The Tykes have found the inability to kill games off incredibly costly as they failed to capitalize on two occasions after taking the lead against Ipswich Town and Doncaster Rovers only to have been pegged back on both occasions. Danny Wilson will be hoping for 3rd time lucky and pull off a "mini" upset.

Team News:

Wigan Athletic- Nicky Maynard and Martyn Waghorn look set to reurn the squad having been unavailable for the FA cup trip to Cardiff at the weekend. Markus Holgersson could make his debut for the club however James McArthur and Nick Powell are serious doubts with a virus and hamstring problem respectively.

Barnsley- Lewis Nyatanga, Stephen Dawson, Ex-Latics midfielder Tomasz Cywka and Liam Lawrence are all looking for returns to the first team. Brek Shea hopes to recover from an Illness in time although Jacob Mellis and bobby Hassell will miss out with suspension and a hamstring problem.

This fixture is a favorable one for the Latics as they would hope to claim an assertive victory to further increase the hopes of a prom push but Uwe Rosler will never under estimate a team and will have his team well organized as ever and being German his organization is the best sort. A win for Wigan could see them jump ahead of Ipswich and Brighton into 7th meanwhile a much needed win for Barnsley would see them leapfrog Charlton into 22nd and see them increase the gap back to bottom club Yeovil Town if the Glovers fail to get a result at home to Watford.

Odds: (Paddy Power)

Wigan- 4/7 (fav)

Draw- 27/10

Barnsley- 5/1

Pick- Wigan 2-0 HT/Wigan 3-0 FT @ 25/1

Other Fixtures:

Sheffield Wednesday VS Derby

Yeovil Town vs Watford