On Sky
The games are coming thick and fast at the moment, hot on the heels of the midweek game against Leicester, Leeds United are in town and the Latics will be looking to consolidate their place in the end of season playoffs as the fixtures are running down swiftly.
Leeds are having a torrid time both on and off the pitch, a very poor run of form that has coincided with uncertainty about a takeover bid and talk of players wages not being paid, but Uwe Rösler won’t be taking them lightly and has already spoken about the wounded animal scenario.
There will be a bumper crowd at the DW Stadium, the Sky TV cameras are also going to be in attendance, we need a big performance and to get at them quickly, undoubtedly there will be some rotation of the starting eleven from Tuesday, but I have given up trying to second guess Rösler on team selection, the only thing on that point that I can say with any certainty is that my team below will not be correct!
Another cracking game in store, what a season this has been, come on you Latics…
What The Bosses Say:
Latics boss Uwe Rösler:
‘We’ve set ourselves a mini target over these three home games in a row, Leeds United and Millwall are coming up and against Leeds we must make sure that we win the game.
‘It’s as simple as that, but Leeds are a wounded animal and sometimes they are the most dangerous.
‘They have also had things to address off the field, but like I always say, when a team is on a winning run they must lose at some point and when a team is on a run without a win, that too must come to an end at some point too.
‘We have to make sure that their run doesn’t end against us and we will take Leeds very seriously because we have already learned lessons this season by losing focus.’
Leeds boss Brian McDermott:
‘They play decent football. Their manager has gone in there from Brentford and has done a good job’
‘If you look at their squad and you see who is on the bench they have got a Premier League squad in my opinion.
‘I think that they have got a good chance of going up this season. If they can get in the Play-Offs they will be difficult to beat.
‘When we played them earlier this season we thought they were a good side and we thought that they would go on a run to get to where they are now.
‘We have got to concentrate on ourselves and we have got to positive. All the individuals in the team have got to be right. We have to go there and get a result.’
Wigan Athletic Team News:
Ben Watson, Chris McCann and Roger Espinoza are all out injured, Jean Beausejour is suspended, Martyn Waghorn will come back into contention.
Latics possible – Al Habsi, Perch, Boyce, Ramis, Kiernan, Crainey, McArthur, Collison, Gomez, Waghorn, Powell
Player to watch: Jordi Gomez
Gomez has been in excellent form of late
By permission of Bernard Platt/Wigan Athletic
Leeds United Team News:
Rudy Austin and Jimmy Kebe are out, Michael Brown, Luke Murphy and Paddy Kenny are pushing for starts.
Leeds from – Butland, Warnock, Pearce, Lees, Wootton, Poleon, Byram, Mowatt, Tonge, White, McCormack, Smith, Hunt, Pugh, Stewart, Murphy, Cairns, Brown
Player to watch: Ross McCormack
Very much a dangerman, scored twice against us at Elland Road earlier in the season.
Any Previous?
Latics and Leeds have met just six times down the years, three of those meetings coming in the FA Cup and it is all square:
Latics have 2 wins (both league), Leeds 2, draws 2
Last Six Meetings
04 Dec 2013 – Championship – Leeds United 2 Latics 0
17 Jan 2006 – FA Cup – Leeds United 3 Latics 3*
07 Jan 2006 – FA Cup – Latics 1 Leeds United 1
19 Feb 2005 – Championship – Latics 3 Leeds United 0
31 Oct 2004 – Championship – Leeds United 0 Latics 2
14 Mar 1987 – FA Cup – Latics 0 Leeds United 2
* Latics won the penalty shoot-out of the FA cup replay in 2006 4-2
Last Time Out
Leeds 2 Latics 0
Goal scorers – McCormack 15 & 77 mins
Referee – Scott Duncan
Attendance – 25,888
Teams:
Leeds United – Kenny, Lees, Zaliukas, Pearce, Peltier, Murphy, Mowatt, Pugh, Austin, McCormack, Smith.
Unused subs – Cairns, Brown, Tonge, Varney, Byram, Poleon. Warnock
Latics – Carson, Barnett, Ramis, Perch, Boyce, Watson, McArthur, McCann, Beausejour (McClean 55), Powell (McManaman 67), Keane (Holt 55)
Unused subs – Nicholls, Shotton, Gomez, Espinoza, McManaman, McClean, Holt
Ref Watch:
Neil Swarbrick (Preston)
Why not take a look at our ‘Meet The Ref’ article
Neil Swarbrick Card Watch 2013/14
Games – 27, yellows – 88, reds – 1
Match Prediction:
Head says Latics to win 2-1
Heart says Latics to win 3-1, either way I see us getting the points tomorrow
Up Next:
Championship
Latics v Millwall
DW Stadium
Tuesday
08/04/14
7:45pm
FA Cup Semi Final
Arsenal v Latics
Wembley Stadium
Saturday
12/04/14
5pm
Championship
Latics v Reading
DW Stadium
Friday
18/04/14
3pm
