Big Game Preview - Latics v Bristol City

Latics line up for their third game in six days this evening when Bristol City are in town for the televised top end of the Championship clash.

Both clubs have had very decent starts to the new campaign and this promises to be another ding-dong clash between two sides that look to win games by going on the offensive.

Like the Latics, Bristol City will be playing their third game in six days and also like the Latics they have a win and a defeat from those two games, there is just a single point separating both clubs in the Championship table and the goals for and against columns show very similar stats. On paper this looks an evenly matched contest.

Storm conditions in Wigan for the day and forecast to carry on into the evening, hopefully the game won’t turn into a lottery, either way I’m hoping for a positive result against a club that historically we don’t do too well against.

Up the tics!

Team News

Latics - Paul Cook has hinted at changes from Tuesday due to a couple of players carrying knocks, Callum McManaman faces a late fitness test whilst Dan Burn and Gavin Massey are definitely out.

Both Michael Jacobs and Darron Gibson, who came off the bench, looked good on Tuesday when returning from injury, Jacobs should definitely start the game whilst it would be difficult for Cookie not to pick Gibson in the starting XI now he is fully fit.

Key Player

Nick Powell, Latics talisman is having a terrific season, again, with him in the team we are always going to create chances.

 










Bristol City – Robins boss Lee Johnson say that both Niclas Eliasson and Famara Diedhiou are pushing for starts after impressing late on in Tuesday nights defeat at West Brom.

Key Player

Andreas Weimann, former Villa and Derby striker settled in quickly following his summer move to Ashton Gate, currently the Robins top scorer with 5 goals.

What The Bosses Say

Paul Cook – "Any game under the lights is exciting and especially to come up against a side with the quality that Bristol City have.

"They're good form apart from their defeat to West Brom on Tuesday night.

"They showed their quality last season and had a tremendous cup run in the League Cup, but it probably caught up with them in the league in terms of pushing for a play-off place.

"I'm sure Lee (Johnson), his staff and the club will have aspirations of being up and around those places and when you watch them you can obviously see why.

"The games are there for everyone to see, it's fantastic to have two home games in a week and we're really looking forward to this.

"The test for every club is team selection and I'm sure Lee is in a similar position to us with lads who might miss out on the game through injuries."

Lee Johnson – “The preparations are good”

“We are in a good run of form, apart from Tuesday of course, and I want us to continue that”

“I want us to continue to play the good stuff and snuff out a couple of the errors I saw, there weren’t many, there never are in this team because we’re a good group and they’re really good players that we can all trust are going to go out and give it their all. 

“On a couple of occasions we fell short of that on Tuesday night and we got punished, so we have to make sure we do the basics very, very well, that we’re world-class at them and then naturally our quality should come out.”

Any Previous?

Latics and Bristol City have met 24 times

Latics 5 wins, Bristol City 12, draws 5

Last meeting

Championship 11 March 2017

Latics 0 Bristol City 1

Flint 88 mins

Attendance – 10,787

Ref – Andy Madley

 

Match Referee

Oliver Langford (West Mids)

Ref Watch article

Prediction

I’m positive there will be goals again, two attack minded teams, poor conditions with the weather, tired legs due to 3 games in 6 days.

I will go for the obligatory 3-2 Latics win

Up Next

Norwich City v Latics

Carrow Road

Saturday

29 Sept 3pm

Latics v Swansea

DW Stadium

Tuesday

02 Oct 7:45pm

Grab a listen to the latest PWU Podcast featuring a preview of tonight’s game.