Roberto Martinez will want to get Latics firing on all cylinders after losing two matches that we could have won, Bolton are our visitors and Wigan Athletic need to get maximum points out of the next two games.

Latics have been very unlucky in their last two games, dominating affairs against Birmingham only to lose and having plenty of opportunity to beat Liverpool midweek as well. Only for more dire shooting from Scotland who missed an open goal in both the said games, we could well have been six points the better off by now.

More disappointment hit us this week as we found out that Mohammed Diame is probably going to miss the next three games after he was hacked down at Anfield on Wednesday. This could mean that Martinez will be forced to play a 4-4-2 formation for a change.

The down side is that we need goals and although Rodallega has proved his worth when given the opportunity, Scotland is still to score and as the games go on the harder it will be for him to bag, especially as he will be thinking of the two guilt edged opportunities he has missed in the last two games.

Diame is our only injury and so Bobby will be able to utilise his squad, it will probably see Koumas, Gomez or Sinclair get the nod from the team that played out the 2-1 loss to Liver last week. But Bolton have been leaking goals nearly as bad as we have lately and with the injuries to Davies, O’Brien and McCann, plus the suspension of Muamba, we should have the better of this game as long as we deal with the inevitable long ball punts that are going to be directed at our defence.

The Trotters did have a very good result against West Ham last time out, winning 3-1, but this was the exception rather than the rule in their current season. It has been 18 games since they have kept a clean sheet and they haven’t scored against us for 18 months, if we can continue these stats we will be OK.

Wigan Athletic fans will be hoping for Hugo Rodallega’s 6 goal (and hopefully more) this season as we haven’t lost a game he has scored in this season, plus I think if Scotland can get in on it as well it will do his confidence a world of good as well as our goal difference. We really have to go out and dominate this like we have in the past few games but kill it off quickly.

Birmingham proved that by them having just 10 good minutes in a game can ruin all the hard work that we do in keeping passion for long periods. That game should have been over at half time but we didn’t take advantage of our territory and possession dominance, this has been the case a few times this season and comes down to scoring goals.

Latics should breeze past Bolton, but as we have experienced far too many times this season, great football doesn’t always bring the rewards it deserves.

The referee, on what is going to be a very cold night, is Alan Wiley – and boy do I hope he has a good and fair game.

For all previous results between Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers Click Here

Current League Positions

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Pos
Wigan Athletic	17	5	3	9	20	38	-18	18	14th
Bolton Wanderers	16	4	4	8	23	33	-10	16	17th

Recent Record

Latics	W	D	L	F	A	GD
Last 8 Games	2	2	4	11	22	-11

 

Trotters	W	D	L	F	A	GD
Last 8 Games	2	2	4	12	20	-8

Foul Play

Latics

Trotters

Games 08/09	Yellow Cards	Red Cards	Games 08/09	Yellow Cards	Red Cards
18	26	0	19	38	2
Average	1.44	0	Average	2	0.11

This Weekend In History

Wigan games from this week in years gone by, click scores for more info from that year.:

	OPPONENTS	GROUND	RES	ATT.
07-08	BLACKBURN ROVERS	JJB STADIUM	5-3	16,489
94-95	FULHAM	SPRINGFIELD PARK	1-1	1,791
87-88	NORTHAMPTON TOWN	SPRINGFIELD PARK	2-2	2,692
79-80	CREWE ALEXANDRA	SPRINGFIELD PARK	2-0	4,316

Fixtures

19th December 2009

Arsenal	v	Hull City
Aston Villa	v	Stoke City
Blackburn Rovers	v	Tottenham Hotspur
Fulham	v	Manchester United
Manchester City	v	Sunderland
Portsmouth	v	Liverpool

20th December 2009

Everton	v	Birmingham City
West Ham United	v	Chelsea
Wolves	v	Burnley