Wigan Athletc travel up the East Lancashire Road on Saturday to take on local rivals Manchester City and will be hoping to maintain their unbeaten start to the season against a real life team of Fantasy Footballers.

Robertio Martinez is expected to keep the faith with most of the team that finished the Queens Park Rangers game two weeks ago, but may well include all three transfer window signings in the squad that will embark on the Etihad Stadium adventure.

Shaun Maloney, Albert Crusat and Patrick Van Aanholt are seen by Martinez as key members of his squad, and unlike most of his previous signings they are ready to hit the ground running as opposed to requiring any settling in periods.

Historically Latics haven’t fared too badly in top flight encounters against their opponents and the victories that City have recorded over Latics have cost them nothing short of a billionaires ransom! 

I predict a very tight game tomorrow and possibly a shock result, but this is based on the home side thinking that they merely need to turn up, whilst Latics will have to be at their supreme best.  Here’s hoping! 

History of this fixture,

04/10/1982 – League Cup, 2.1 – (H) – 1-1 – (Tommy Caton (og)  – 12,194       
Tunks, McMahon, Weston, O’Keefe, Lloyd, Methven, Glenn, Cribley, Bradd, Houghton, Gemmill  
                     
27/10/1982 – League Cup, 2.2 – (A) – 0-2 – 16,083              
Tunks, McMahon, Cribley, Lowe, (Butler), Walsh, Methven, Glenn, Weston, Bradd, Houghton, Gemmill
(Steve Walsh’s  first game for the club)

17/10/1998 – Division Two – (H) – 0-1 – 6,700       
Carroll, Green, Bradshaw, Griffiths, Balmer, Rogers, (Kilford 75), Lee, (Barlow 61), Greenall, (Sharp 82), Haworth, O’Neill, Liddell 
(Debut for Andy Liddell)             

03/04/1999 – Division Two – (A) – 0-1 – 31,058    
Carroll, Bradshaw, Sharp, McGibbon, Balmer, Porter, Lee, (Kilford 73), Greenall, Jones, (Lowe 73), O’Neill, Barlow                         

15/05/1999 – Division Two, Play Off S/F 1 – (H) – 1-1 – (Stuart Barlow) – 6,762      
Carroll, Bradshaw, (Green 84), Sharp, McGibbon, Balmer, Porter, Liddell, (Lee 80), Greenall, Haworth, (Jones 31), O’Neill, Barlow
(Stuart Barlow’s goal was the last scored by a Latics player at Springfield Park.  Paul Dickov, who equalized for City, was the last player to ever score at the ground)                        

19/05/1999 – Division Two, Play Off S/F 2 – (A) – 0-1 – 31,305       
Carroll, Green, (Kilford 66), Sharp, McGibbon, Balmer, Porter, (Lee 75), Liddell, Greenall, Lowe, (Jones 54), Bradshaw, Barlow                 

05/11/2002 – League Cup, 3 – (H) – 1-0 – (Neil Roberts) – 15,007  
Filan, Eaden, Jackson, De Vos, McMillan, (Mitchell 61), Liddell, (Teale 39), Jarrett, Dinning, Kennedy, Roberts, Ellington, (Green 78)                         

26/12/2005 – The Premiership – (H) – 4-3 – (Jason Roberts 2, Lee McCulloch, Henri Camara0 – 25,017
Pollitt, Chimbonda, Jackson, De Zeeuw, Baines, Teale, (Taylor, 83), Bullard, Kavanagh, (Francis, 72), McCulloch, Roberts, Camara, (Connolly, 85)                 

28/01/2006 – FA Cup, 2 – (A) – 0-1 – 30,811            
Filan, Chimbonda, Jackson, Scharner, Baines, Ziegler, Francis, Skoko, (Henchoz, 70), Mahon, (Bullard, 65), Johansson, Mellor, (Roberts, 59)     
(Reto Ziegler’s first game for the club) 

18/03/2006 – The Premiership – (A) – 1-0 – (Lee McCulloch0 – 42,444       
Filan, Chimbonda, De Zeeuw, Scharner, Baines, Teale, Kavanagh, Bullard, McCulloch, Camara, (Johansson 85), Roberts                               

21/10/2006 – The Premiership – (H) – 4-0 – (Emile Heskey, (Dunne (og), Henri Camara, Luis Antonio Valencia) – 16,235  
Kirkland, Boyce, Hall, (Webster 46), De Zeeuw, Baines, Valencia, (Teale 83), Skoko, (Landzaat 30), Scharner, Kilbane, Heskey, Camara              
(Debut for Andy Webster)          

03/03/2007 – The Premier League – (A) – 1-0 – (Caleb Folan) – 39,923       
Filan, Taylor, Jackson, Boyce, (Unsworth 77), Baines, Valencia, (Aghahowa 75), Landzaat, Skoko, McCulloch, Heskey, (Kilbane 55) , Folan                        

01/12/2007 – The Premiership – (H) – 1-1 – (Paul Scharner) – 18,614          
Kirkland, Melchiot, (sent off 88), Bramble, Boyce, Kilbane, Valencia, Scharner, Landzaat, Koumas, Heskey, Bent, (Taylor, 53)         
(Steve Bruce’s first game as manager)  

01/03/2008 – The Premier League – (A) – 0-0 – 38,261      
Kirkland, Melchiot, Scharner, Boyce, Edman, Valencia, Palacios, Brown, Koumas, Heskey,  King, ( Sibierski 66)

28/09/2008 – The Premier League– (H) – 2-1 – (Luis Antonio Valencia, Amr Zaki (pen))  – 18,214
Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, Boyce, Figueroa, Valencia, Palacios, Cattermole, (Brown 53),
Kapo, Heskey, Zaki.

17/01/2009 – The Premier League – (A) – 0-1 – 41,262
Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, (Camara 87), Scharner, Figueroa, (Kapo 74), Valencia, Palacios, Cattermole, Taylor, (De Ridder 58), Heskey, Zaki.

10/10/2009 – The Premier League – (H) – 1-1 – (Charles N’Zogbia) – 20,005          
Kirkland, Melchiot, Boyce, Bramble, Figueroa, N’Zogbia, Diame, Thomas, Scotland, Scharner, (Gomez 72), Rodallega   

29/03/2010 – The Premier League – (A) – 0-3 – 43,534
Stojkovic, Melchiot, Caldwell (sent off 56), Bramble, Figueroa, McCarthy, Diame, Thomas, (N’Zogbia 52), Scharner, Rodallega, (Scotland 82), Moreno, (Gohouri 82).
(Steve Gohouri’s first game for the club).

19/09/2010- The Premier League – (H) – 0-2 – 15,525
Al-Habsi, Boyce, (Stam 65), Alcaraz, Gohouri, Figueroa, N’Zogbia, (Moses 86), Diame, (Watson 86), McCarthy, Thomas, Rodallega, Di Santo

05/03/2011 – The Premier League – (A) – 0-1 – 44,864
Al-Habsi, Piscu, (Gohouri 69), Caldwell G, Alcaraz, Figueroa, Moses, (N’Zogbia 60), Diame, (Sammon 83), Cleverley, Watson, McCarthy, Rodallega
(First league game for Adrian Lopez ‘Piscu’ and Conor Sammon – although Piscu had appeared in the FA Cup and a pre season friendly)

Links between the clubs,

Sam Barkas, Ronnie Barker, Michael Ball, Peter Beagrie, Paul Beesley, John Benson, Wayne Biggins, John Bond, Billy Bootle, Mark Bowen, Carl Bradshaw, Ged Brannan, Michael Brown, Terry Cooke, Phil Critchley, John Deehan, Frank Eckersley, Richard Edghill, Fred Eyre, Dave Felgate, Joe Fletcher, Derek Floyd, Joe Hayes, Ronnie Hildersley, Kevin Langley, Jeff Larner, Andy May, Lewis Montrose, Jimmy Munro (guested for Latics v a Duncan Colquhoun XI on 6 April 1949), Carlo Nash, Jimmy Naylor, Eric Nixon, Neil Pointon, Andy Porter, Freddie Pye, Kevin Reeves, Allan Sanders, Jack Savage, Mark Seagraves, Antoine Sibierski, John Taylor (guested for Latics in 13 league games), Mark Ward, Jackie Wharton, Steve Wigley

Other Wigan/Manchester City links,

James Bradley, Joe Clare, George Lewins, James Murphy, William Oxley, Samuel Sharp and Wilf Woodcock all played for Wigan Borough and Manchester City.

Did you know – that Manchester City also played a game at Springfield Park against a Northern Premier League XI on 07/05/1974?  The game resulted in a 2-2 draw and playing in the NPL team were Latics stars, Billy Sutherland, John Rogers, Ian Gillibrand and Micky Worswick

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