Seeking to snap their run of three consecutive stalemates, Wigan Athletic go head to head with Peterborough United in round nine of League One on Tuesday.
Posh, meanwhile, will journey to the Brick Community Stadium looking to get one over the hosts, having lost both home and away meetings between the two teams last season.
Match preview
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Since storming to a 4-0 victory over Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium on September 14, Wigan Athletic have played out three goalless draws in their three outings, including Saturday's clash with Exeter City at the Brick Community Stadium.
Head coach Shaun Maloney will take pride in the solid job done in defence, where Wigan have now kept five clean sheets from their opening seven league games and have conceded the joint-fewest number of goals so far (5).
However, there remains room for improvement at the opposite end of the pitch as the Latics have scored just six goals this season, four of which came in the win over Bristol Rovers — only Crawley Town (5) have scored fewer.
With Saturday's result, Wigan have now failed to win five of their six home games this season, picking up three draws and losing twice, including a penalty-shootout defeat against Morecambe in the EFL Cup opening round on August 13.
Off the back of a 12th-placed finish in the 2023-24 campaign, Wigan have picked up nine points from the first 24 available to sit 16th in the League One table, but could move level with ninth-placed Stockport County with a win on Tuesday.
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Peterborough United, on the other hand, were condemned to their first away defeat of the new league campaign on Saturday when they were beaten 3-2 by Birmingham City after squandering their two-goal lead at St Andrew's.
The visitors raced into a comfortable lead through goals from Ricky-Jade Jones and Emmanuel Fernandez inside the opening quarter of an hour but strikes from Willum Thor Willumsson, Krystian Bielik and a second-half own goal from Oscar Wallin helped Birmingham turn the game on its head.
Prior to that, Peterborough United were on a run of four back-to-back games without defeat across all competitions, picking up two draws and two wins, including a 2-1 victory over Gillingham in the EFL Trophy on September 3.
Darren Ferguson's men have now lost three of their eight League One matches this term while picking up three wins and two draws to collect 11 points and sit 12th in the standings, level on points with 11th-placed Stevenage.
Next up for Peterborough is the challenge of an opposing side against whom they suffered defeat in both home and away meetings between the teams last term, losing a 2-1 at the Brick Community Stadium on November 7, three months before suffering a 3-2 loss on home turf.
Team News
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Wigan Athletic will take to the pitch without the services of 22-year-old Luke Robinson and Australian midfielder Tyrese Francois, who are currently recuperating from injuries.
Jonny Smith, who finished with four goals and three assists in 33 games across all competitions last term, will also play no part in Tuesday's tie as he continues his spell on the sidelines.
Off the back of keeping a fourth clean sheet on the bounce, we expect Maloney to name an unchanged back four of James Carragher, Jason Kerr, Will Aimson and Luke Chambers, with 22-year-old Sam Tickle starting between the sticks once again.
With his opener against Birmingham, Jones now has three goals in his last five matches across all competitions and the 21-year-old should spearhead the Peterborough attack, alongside Malik Mothersille and Kwame Poku.
In defence, 23-year-old Wallin and Emmanuel Fernandez form the centre-back pairing once again while Hector Kyprianou, Archie Collins and Donay O'Brien-Brady should retain their roles in the centre of the park.
On the injury front, the visitors remain without Rio Adebisi, Ryan De Havilland, Chris Conn-Clarke, Bradley Ihionvien and Spanish midfielder Mahamadou Susoho continue their spells on the sidelines.
Wigan Athletic possible starting lineup:
Tickle; Carragher, Kerr, Aimson, Chambers; Smith; Rankine, Weir, Aasgaard, Thomas; Hugill
Peterborough United possible starting lineup:
Steer; Sparkes, Wallin, Fernandez, Katongo; Kyprianou, Collins, O'Brien-Brady; Jones, Mothersille, Poku
We say: Wigan Athletic 1-1 Peterborough United
While Wigan were guilty of a lack of cutting edge in front of goal against Exeter City at the weekend, they have now gone four consecutive games without defeat and will head into Tuesday's clash with confidence. However, the Latics have struggled for results at home this term and we fancy Peterborough to hold out for a share of the spoils.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joshua Ojele
