Wigan Athletic v Blackpool
When Wigan beat Blackpool 1-0 at the DW Stadium on a warm day back in August this year, it was expected that The Latics would again make a push for promotion back to the Premier League under manager Uwe Rosler, while Blackpool would face a season of toil.
442 magazine even had Wigan favorites for automatic promotion. It has come as a surprise then that Wigan are just one place above Blackpool at the wrong end of the table.
Blackpool, who had struggled to even put together a squad over the summer, were expected to find the going hard and indeed they have, presently propping up the Championship with just 13 points from 21 games going into this weekend's fixtures.
Both Blackpool and Wigan have changed their managers already this season. Blackpool replaced Belgian coach Jose Riga with Lee Clark, himself released by fellow Championship strugglers, Birmingham, just 10 before.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan pulled the trigger on Uwe Rosler after a poor run of form but opted to replace the popular German coach, who had taken the club to the Championship play-offs and the FA Cup semi-finals last season, with Malky Mackay, a man seemingly in disgrace, after his racially-charged text messages were leaked following his sacking at Premier League Swansea.
Whelan added to the club's woes with a series of ill-considered comments in interviews with the press where he sought to defend his new appointment and now finds himself in hot water with the FA.
Wigan laboured to beat a gutsy Blackpool 1-0 back in August with a single goal from Spanish striker Oriol Riera, a summer signing from Osasuna, but now seemingly out of favour with new man Mackay.
Blackpool would appear favourites for the drop with a section of the support opposed to chairman Karl Oyston, though Wigan would appear to have the talent in their squad to escape relegation to League One.
The Latics' fate may well be decided off the pitch when ongoing inverstigations into chairman Whelan and manager Mackay are finally concluded.
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