Let’s start with the rather large elephant in the room; we owe Wigan big time after last season. Losing a game of football is part and parcel of being a player, a supporter or a manager. It doesn’t matter what your role is, losing hurts. But losing by eight goals, to a relegation rival is simply unacceptable. When the final whistle went at the DW Stadium last season, nobody could be angry, they simply had nothing to say. It was the lowest point imaginable for a team that had fallen so, so far in such a short space of time. Things were to get worse that season and the end of it saw City drop into League One, which brings us to this game right here. Wigan haven’t adapted to League One at all and find themselves rooted in the bottom four. You can point to off field issues, to player mismanagement and unpaid staff, but whatever the reason, it isn’t going well at all. They’ve won just two of their last ten, including a five nil home thumping by Blackpool; indeed, they’ve won at home twice all season, the last coming against Accrington in mid-December. Oh, yeah, typical City.
For all their troubles, Wigan can do something the Tigers haven’t managed to consistently pull off and that’s score goals. This sounds odd given that City are one of the leading goalscorers in the division, but there’s been a distinct lack of goalmouth action for us over the last month. Chances are there, but for whatever reason we just can’t put the ball in the net. Not a problem for Wigan, who have averaged a goal a game in their last 10 matches. Their top scorer Joe Garner left for APOEL Nicosia in January, leaving the goal scoring duties to teenager Kyle Joseph and former Tiger Will Keane (LOL).
Leam Richardson is the interim boss at the Latics and he sets his team up to attack from the back; Wigan lack a big target man, so they tend to play on the ground and try and break using the pace of Gavin Massey and Tendayi Darikwa to overlap and create crossing opportunities. Kyle Joseph is a talent that is being scouted by Premier League clubs and he can finish as well as hold up the ball to bring in the likes of Jamie Proctor and Viv-Solomon Otabor if he needs to.

Don’t Panic! (yet)
Things aren’t going City’s way at the moment, I think we can all agree on that. We’ve stopped scoring goals and started letting in daft ones. I mentioned a while back that we still aren’t seeing the full potential of this team and I stand by that even more so going into this game. There’s something clearly not quite right at the moment and for all Grant McCann bemoaning luck, the problem could be inherently deeper. Before, we saw KLP’s contract situation hovering over the club like some sort of hovery, loomy thing bringing everybody down and we saw that once it was sorted, the results picked up. There isn’t a back story this time, so what is it that’s made our team lose confidence after such wonderful performances against Charlton, Accrington and Portsmouth? Confidence doesn’t seem high at the moment and any City fan would be forgiven for thinking “here we go again” after last season. It is worth recognising, though, that we are in a pretty good position. Alright, other teams have games in hand, but City can only play who is in front of them and hope to get something from each game, the rest can take care of themselves. We could so easily be in Wigan’s situation, where we had to sell a teams worth of players just to keep the club going and be scrapping it out at the bottom of a pretty competitive league. A bit of perspective is sometimes needed in these times; City were never going to steamroll this division and while fans will point to players having played at a higher level or having the ability to do so, it’s worth remembering that teams such as Sheffield United, Huddersfield, Southampton, Sunderland, Ipswich and even the “mighty” Leeds United have found getting promoted out of League One to be a real challenge. A win at Wigan would be a huge fillip for everybody associated with the club and would give us real confidence going into the derby game against Doncaster on Saturday.

Wigan Team News
Defender Tom Pearce has been ruled out for the rest of the season, so Scotland U21 international Luke Robinson could step in. Former Tiger Will Keane and 5 goal striker Kyle Joseph are fit.

Hull City Team News
Ritchie Smallwood looks to have kicked his last ball this season as Grant McCann confirms his injury could be season ending. Alfie Jones, meanwhile, could feature at the DW having overcome the muscle injury that kept him out of City’s last three matches. This game probably comes too soon for Tom Eaves, with next week’s midweek home match against Ipswich a possibility.

Predicted Hull City XI: Ingram, Emmanuel, Greaves, Burke, Elder, Jones, Docherty, Honeyman, Wilks, KLP, Crowley

Predicted Score: Wigan Athletic 1 - 2 Hull City