Well that’s now 3 away wins on the spin & only Brighton by 1 point have better form over the last 5 games in the entire bottom half of the Championship. Things are looking up, I wish I hadn’t fallen off me fence a couple of times, sometimes no matter how dire it may seem you must always keep the faith.
So the TNS offices are little more upbeat, even Wildheart predicted that Wigan would beat Norwich 1-0, I’m waiting for him to clamber up the step ladders and join me on the fence.
It’s the 36th game in the Sky Bet Championship. Wigan Athletic will be playing Leeds United at the DW Stadium, kick off with be 3pm on Saturday the 7th March.
League Position, well at last I have a different position to report for Wigan Athletic, they are now in 22nd place with 31 points. Leeds United is in 15th place with 44 points. Top of the Championship are Middlesbrough with 66 points.
Looking at recent form coming into this game, it’s positive for both teams, Wigan have moved up to 13th with 9 points in their last 6 games. Leeds are even higher with 12 points in their last 6, this means they are 6th in the form table. Top of the form table are Norwich City (yes we just beat them), with 15 points from 6.
- Wigan P 6 W 3 D 0 L 3 (Wins against Reading, Blackpool & Norwich)
- Leeds P 6 W 4 D 0 L 2 (Wins against Reading, Millwall, Middlesbrough & Ipswich)
Previous Games between the 2, in December if you remember TNS made it all the way to the BBC Web site, for a Boycott that was gaining momentum before Wigan Athletic responded. That match saw Leeds win 2-0 & the issue of Away tickets costing a fortune meant the Brick Project gain some valuable funding. We did cover the head to head info within that Match Preview, but with that result it meant overall from the 8 games, Wigan had won 4, Leeds 2, with 2 draws. Once again thanks to Cockney Latics for the head to head info.
Referee from the Game will be Geoff Eltringham; his assistants will be Alf Greenwood & Anthony Tankard, with the 4th official being David Webb.
Geoff, last took a game for Wigan last season, January 2014 saw Wigan beat Bournemouth 3-0 at the DW, with Fortune & Jordi getting the goals and Elliot Ward scoring an own goal too. Only Mr McCann got a Yellow card that day.
Leeds last saw Geoff in the same season, the ref’s last game of the season in April 2014, saw Leeds beat Birmingham 3-1 at St. Andrews, with again a single Yellow card being issued to a very familiar Jason Pearce.
Team News, so Neil Redfearn will know Rodolph Austin won’t be available due to a thigh strain and Steve Morrison may be looking for a start after coming off the bench for the win over Ipswich.
Malky may be looking to keep the same team that beat Norwich mid week, with Jermaine Pennant still not able to finish a full game and no known injuries picked up. He though may have William Kvist available for the game as he returned to training this week. Also what may help, is some the Training that Gary Neville gave Wigan at the end of this week, just to fine tune that defence that’s conceded only 2 goals in the last 3 games.
How the Bookies see the game, well they are tight; they’re going for a Home win at 37%, an Away win at 35% & 28% for the draw. I do hope we get a Home win; it has been 14 games since Wigan last won at home (4-0 vs Birmingham in late August).
So looking at the odds for the game, Wigan are at 23/20, Leeds are 5/2 & you can get 11/5 for the draw with William Hill. Looking at my foolish bet, I’m going to go for Kim getting the first goal for the 3rd game on the spin and a 1-0 win will get you 28/1.
My thoughts on the game, just for the team to continue to believe in themselves, a Huddersfield home win and Wigan getting to within 3 points of Rotherham would be great.
Come on Wigan.
Andy
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