Town boss Mick McCarthy would love his players to replicate last season’s excellent performance at Wigan in tonight’s live Sky game, but wouldn’t care if they played poorly as long as they ran out winners (Sky Sports 1/HD1 7.30pm, KO 7.45pm). A year ago the Blues dominated the Latics in the corresponding fixture at the DW Stadium but were beaten 2-0.
"Of course I’d take a repeat performance but I’m much happier playing badly and winning because it’s the points that count,” McCarthy said.
"People do remember performances and we were excellent there last year, but the excellence is short-lived at the time when you’ve been beaten and I don’t want that to happen.
"They’re a good side, though. They narrowly missed out on promotion last season. We’ll see. We’ve had a few days to recover, which is nice.”
Despite having lost James McArthur, who joined Crystal Palace before the deadline, the Town boss says Wigan have kept hold of many of their players and have also added to their squad.
"They lost one or two but they’ve taken Emyr Huws from Manchester City, who was on loan at Birmingham last year and who I was trying to get. A lot of clubs were interested in him,” he added.
"They’ve sold one for £7 million and taken in a very capable player. And they’ve kept some of their big names, I think they’ve got a good squad and they’ve spent a few quid to add to it.
"They were excellent down here last year, I thought they were one of the best teams we played.”
He says the Latics’ promotion ambitions were hampered by their European campaign last year, although believes their recent FA Cup runs - they won in 2013 and reached the semi-final last season - can be beneficial.
"I don’t think the Europa League campaign helped them, that is so difficult, playing on a Thursday. We had to play them on a Sunday and maybe that was why we were so dominant in the game, but we didn’t win it.
"The cup competitions can galvanise you and you keep going and going and going and it helps.”
Wigan finished last season fifth in the table, four places and five points better off than the Blues, before losing to QPR in the play-off semi-final, a type of defeat which McCarthy believes can take a while to get over.
"It’s not easy if you get to the play-offs and lose,” he said. "That can be tough. You’re so close to getting to the promised land that is the Premier League and then miss out. It leaves players feeling a little bit flat and clubs feeling a little bit flat.
"I have to be honest, I haven’t seen much of them this season. I’ll be doing the analysis over the weekend before we go, so I’ll know more about them then.”
With the Blues having had almost a week’s break following the 2-0 home victory over Brighton, the players having been given Thursday and Friday off before returning to Playford Road to train over the weekend, McCarthy could opt to name an unchanged side for the third game running.
Dean Gerken would be in goal, Jonny Parr and Tyrone Mings will continue as the full-backs with Christophe Berra and skipper Luke Chambers at the heart of the defence.
In central midfield, Cole Skuse is expected to be over a foot problem and is likely to line-up alongside Teddy Bishop with Jay Tabb on the left and Paul Anderson on the right. David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy will continue up front.
Cameron Stewart is set to miss out on a place on the bench having suffered a minor knee injury in the U21s last week having recovered from his broken jaw.
Stephen Hunt is available after his calf injury, while recent signing Darren Ambrose could also have made the trip.
Wigan, who are currently 17th on eight points, five places and three points behind the Blues, have won their last two home games after drawing the other.
Boss Uwe Rosler is hoping to build on that form: "We’re going into the game with pretty stable home performances and after Tuesday’s game [0-0 at Huddersfield] we’ve analysed things and from that we are confident of progressing.
"We did a lot of things right against Huddersfield and the pleasing thing for me was that we put in a better overall performance than we did [in the 3-1 defeat] at Blackburn last weekend.”
Midfielder James McClean is over a hamstring problem but Ben Watson and Chris McCann are still sidelined with longer-term injuries.
In March, Wigan left Portman Road having claimed a 3-1 win. Tommy Smith put Town in front in the 19th minute, but goals from McClean and Leon Barnett saw the Latics go in ahead at the break with McClean adding his second and Wigan's third in 77th minute.
Last time at the DW Stadium in September last year, Ryan Shotton and Nick Powell scored a goal in either half to consign Town to a 2-0 defeat.
The result was harsh on the Blues, who hit the bar early on through Luke Chambers and had plenty of other chances to claim their first ever win away at Wigan.
Overall, Town have beaten the Latics twice (once in the league), have lost six times (five) and the teams have drawn one League Cup tie.
Loanee striker Conor Sammon is the only player to have represented tonight's opposition, the Irishman was with Wigan between January 2011 and August 2012.
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.
Wigan's goalkeeper-coach is Mike Pollitt, who made one appearance for the Blues during a curtailed loan spell in November 2006, a 3-1 home derby victory over Norwich City.
For fans making the long trip to the DW Stadium, Wigan's Marquee Suite is available prior to the game and is situated behind the visiting supporters' North Stand serving drinks and a selection of snacks.
The Suite is an award-winning facility and has catered for away fans for around 10 years.
Tonight’s referee is Andy Woolmer from Northamptonshire, who has shown 19 yellow cards and no red so far this season. Woolmer, who works as a postman, last took charge of the Blues in March 2012 when they beat Bristol City 3-0 at Portman Road.
Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Parr, Hewitt, Mings, Berra, Chambers, Smith, Skuse, Bishop, Hyam, Anderson, Tabb, Henshall, Hunt, Ambrose, Bru, McGoldrick, Murphy, Sammon, Bajner.