Both reeling from dreadful starts to the 2024-25 season, Wigan Athletic and Morecambe look to give their disgruntled fans something to cheer in Tuesday's EFL Trophy showdown at the Brick Community Stadium.
The two sides compete in Northern Section Group C of the tournament, where Carlisle United and Nottingham Forest Under-21s also aspire to finish in the two second-round spots.
Match preview
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Any hopes of Wigan Athletic ending their exile from the top two divisions of English football have already suffered blow after blow, and head coach Shaun Maloney could be forgiven for having a face like thunder so far this term, as seen above.
Indeed, the 2013 FA Cup winners only have three points to show from their first four matches of the 2024-25 campaign, edging out Crawley Town 1-0 but falling to the supremacy of Charlton Athletic, Reading and most recently Birmingham City.
Maloney's men gave it a good go against the latter side on August 31, with Blues tipped to dominate the League One landscape after a summer of unprecedented third-tier cash-splashing, only to succumb to an excruciating injury-time winner from Scott Wright.
Wigan have already suffered one dose of knockout heartache in the summer months, losing to Barnsley on penalties in their opening EFL Cup battle, and the Latics are also still awaiting their first slice of glory in the EFL Trophy, a tournament they have seldom played in during the current millennium.
Beaten finalists in 1985 and 1999 - losing to Brentford and Millwall respectively - Wigan progressed to the semi-finals in 2021-22 and the last 16 in 2023-24, but on both occasions, they failed to hold their nerve from the penalty spot.
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While the Latics have at least one victory to shout about this season, Morecambe do not even have a point let alone a goal to parade from their first five games of the new term, all of which have been chastening experienced for head coach Derek Adams.
Walsall, Gillingham, Doncaster Rovers and Newport County have all beaten the Shrimps to nil in the early stages of the current League Two campaign, and Morecambe shared Wigan's EFL Cup first-round fate, suffering a 3-0 Huddersfield Town humbling.
Saturday's showdown with Newport County saw Adams's men concede to Aaron Wildig in the ninth minute and fail to muster up any sort of attacking response in the following 81, although that scoreline did not tell the full story for Morecambe, who were the dominant force for most of the match.
However, the Shrimps were once again bereft of a killer touch in the final third and remain rooted to the foot of the table as a result, with all other 23 sides in the division at least boasting two points so far.
Six of Morecambe's last seven appearances in the EFL Trophy have also seen Tuesday's hosts crash out in the group stage, and their only two previous competitive contests with Wigan - which came in the 2021-22 season - saw the Shrimps fall to defeat on both occasions.
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Team News
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The summer transfer window saw Wigan add a few Premier League prospects to their squad, but one of them - Brighton & Hove Albion loanee Jensen Weir - is cup-tied for Tuesday's EFL Trophy opener.
Luke Robinson (knee) and Tyrese Francois (muscle) are also out of contention, although the latter is expected back within a couple of weeks, and the hosts picked up no fresh concerns in the recent loss to Birmingham.
James Carragher - son of Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher - could only complete 45 minutes of that battle, although that change was seemingly tactical in nature, as the defender has been hampered by fitness problems in the early stages of his career.
Five players are away on international duty, though, including Luke Chambers, Thelo Aasgaard, Baba Adeeko, Dale Taylor and Sam Tickle, the latter of whom was linked with Arsenal in the summer window.
As Morecambe finally endeavour to end their 2024-25 goal drought, their offensive efforts will not be helped by the absence of 6ft 7in striker Marcus Dackers, who is cup-tied for this game having played for Salford City in the tournament already.
The deadline day signing will therefore have to wait a little while longer to make his debut, having not been involved in the loss to Newport County at the weekend, where Hallam Hope and Lee Angol unsuccessfully shared the attacking burden.
Wigan Athletic possible starting lineup:
Lonergan; Sessegnon, Kerr, Sibbick, Aimson; S. Smith, M. Smith; Thomas, Rankine, McManaman; Hugill
Morecambe possible starting lineup:
Moore; Millen, Williams, Stott, Tutonda; Songo'o, Jones; Edwards, Lewis, Slew; Hope
We say: Wigan Athletic 1-0 Morecambe
Confidence reserves are hardly high in either camp right now, and even though Morecambe's overall display against Newport County was admirable, their clinical edge is still eluding them.
Wigan are hardly pulling up trees in the final third either, but with a tad more quality in the Latics' ranks, Maloney's men may need just the one goal to get off to a winning start in the EFL Trophy.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ben Knapton
