Anderson Only Change at Wigan Saturday, 21st Sep 2013 06:00 Boss Mick McCarthy looks set to recall Paul Anderson to his side for Sunday’s trip to Wigan Athletic. The midfielder is back from a slight groin injury and appears likely to come into what will otherwise be an unchanged team for skipper Carlos Edwards on the right of midfield. The Town manager said he was pleased with Anderson during last week’s 3-1 victory over Middlesbrough and the summer signing from Bristol City would have started the 2-1 win against Yeovil had he not suffered a slight groin injury. Aside from Anderson's probable return, the rest of the team is likely to be the one which beat the Glovers with Dean Gerken in goal, Aaron Cresswell at left-back, Luke Chambers at right-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the heart of the defence. Luke Hyam and Cole Skuse are again set to be in the centre of the midfield with Ryan Tunnicliffe on the left. David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy will start up front. Tyrone Mings is back in training after suffering a knee injury on the opening day of the season but is not yet ready for inclusion in the first-team squad. McCarthy says his players are in unsurprisingly good spirits after the back to back home wins, although they weren’t particularly downbeat prior to those games: “They were in good heart after the Birmingham draw. “I try to make sure that the players don’t fluctuate up and down too much between winning, losing and drawing. “They come in, the place is a happy camp, they’re in good spirits. It’s happier when we’ve won, of course, and it’s happier still when we’ve won two on the bounce.” The Town boss has said he’s been pleased with his team’s form but does he feel it’s good enough to for them to be amongst the play-off challengers come May? “If we could play another 39 games in the manner in which we’ve played, with the energy, the enthusiasm, the organisation that the players have had on the pitch, and the football that they’ve played. “But that’s never going to happen. I think we’ve had a good spell in the seven games so far, we’ve played well. But there will be a spell where we don’t play well. “I’m not planning for it, but it’ll happen because it does. I guess then, if we aren't playing to the standards that we can, [it’s a case of] can we still get a result? “And actually, can we play better than we’ve played? I think we probably can in certain aspects of it.” Sunday’s game is Town’s fourth away match of the campaign and their third against a side relegated from the Premier League in May. McCarthy says he wasn’t too concerned by that prospect when the fixtures were released in June: “That didn’t bother me that because I thought we might have caught them on the hop and, you know what, I thought we did. I thought we played really well against both Reading and QPR. “It annoys me that people say we’ve had tough games. We should have had something from them, we played well enough. We were better than them for big parts of the games. “And likewise Wigan. I know they’ve travelled [to Belgium on Thursday night for their Europa Cup match against Zulte Waregem] but most of the team that will be playing against us didn’t travel. “I’m not thinking for one minute that we’re getting such a great advantage because of that.” He added: “I’m guessing but I think he’ll put back in the guys that didn’t travel and the ones that have been playing — Callum McManaman came in, James McClean came in, he made seven changes. “I think there was only James Perch, Emmerson Boyce, Scott Carson and one other [Jordi Gomez that kept their places], so that’s not going to make such a big difference. “Owen Coyle’s got a big squad, a very, very good squad of players. He's had a bit of a slow start in the league but I’d expect them to be up there. They are one of the favourites to go back up and I think with that squad, that’s right.” McCarthy says the Wigan side which faces Town on Sunday could actually be fresher than his team after their game against Yeovil on Tuesday: “All my players played on Tuesday. Am I going to be making wholesale changes? Am I heck! “They played and they’ve got another game on Sunday. I would imagine that seven or their players, aside from training, have had a week’s rest since the Leicester game. I don’t think there’s any great advantage.” McCarthy says his Wigan opposite number Coyle took on the Latics at a strange time: “It’s an unusual job because it was bittersweet, they’d had success and failure in the same season. “Robbie Martinez was revered there for the football his teams played and some of the remarkable get out of jail things that went on towards the end of seasons. What was it, seven out of 11 games they won one season, which was just unbelievable. “It sort of wasn’t like him taking over a relegated team, not the same as others. They won the FA Cup and relegation didn’t seem to have the same effect that it did on other clubs.” The Town boss doesn’t expect Wigan, Reading or QPR to struggle in the way that Wolves, Blackburn and Bolton did last year having dropped out of the Premier League. “I don’t see that happening,” he said. “Don’t forget, they’ve all got experienced Championship managers, that does make a difference.” As ever, he says he’ll be out to gain all three points: “We’ll be going there with that intention, that’s all I can promise. “Whether we get something or not will be determined by how well we play, how they play, a referee’s decision or something. But we’re going there with the intent of winning.” Having been left out of the 0-0 away draw with Zulte Waregem, Jean Beausejour, Roger Espinoza, Marc Antoine-Fortune, Leon Barnett, Ben Watson, Thomas Rogne and Shaun Maloney could all return for the Latics. Former Norwich skipper Grant Holt has a knee injury and misses out, along with keeper Ali Al Habsi (shoulder) and defenders Gary Caldwell (hip) and Ivan Ramis (knee). The sides last met in a Carling Cup run third round tie at Portman Road in September 2008 which the Latics won 4-1. The result flattered the visitors with all the goals coming in the second half. Lee Cattermole opened the scoring and Jon Walters equalised before goals from Olivier Kapo, Paul Scharner and Henri Camara won the tie. In the league, the teams last came up against one another in the 2004/05 season in which Paul Jewell’s Wigan pipped Joe Royle's Blues to second in what’s now the Championship. Town finished third and lost in the play-off semi-final to West Ham At what’s now the DW Stadium in March 2005, Town dropped to three points behind the Latics and Mick McCarthy's Sunderland as top of the table Wigan defeated the Blues 1-0. The goal was scored from the spot by future Blue Nathan Ellington three minutes before the break after Fabian Wilnis had been adjudged to have fouled Jason Roberts in the area. In the preceding December, an 89th minute Darren Bent goal gave the Blues a dramatic victory over Wigan and took them ahead of the Latics at the top of the league. After a goalless first half, a stupendous Leighton Baines 40-yarder put the visitors ahead but Richard Naylor and Bent gave the Blues the win they deserved. Overall, Town have beaten the Latics twice (once in the league), have lost four times (three) and the teams have drawn one League Cup tie. Town fitness coach Andy Liddell was a Wigan player between 1998 and 2004 and kit man Paul Beesley was at Springfield Park between 1984 and 1989, while veteran Latics keeper Mike Pollitt, who is currently on loan at Barnsley, is the only player with either club to have played for the opposition. Pollitt, 41, made one appearance for the Blues during a curtailed loan spell in November 2006, a 3-1 home derby victory over Norwich City. Sunday’s referee is James Adcock from Nottinghamshire, who has shown 18 yellow cards and no reds in four games so far this season. Adcock’s last Town match was the 3-0 victory over Leeds at Portman Road in March when he booked five players and red-carded Whites defender Tom Lees. Squad from: Loach, Gerken, Chambers, Hewitt, Veseli, Cresswell, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Hyam, Wordsworth, Tunnicliffe, Edwards, Anderson, Tabb, Murphy, McGoldrick, Nouble, Taylor.
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