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.

Photo: Action Images

Stato added 06:22 - Sep 22 Sam alladyce comes out with the same stuff but it's not true as unfortunately for them football is about entertainment and that is why the last home crowd was below 16k. Great chance tonight to show the armchair fans that it is worth coming to Portman Road.
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76blue added 07:57 - Sep 22 I feel Wigan have a point to prove so I'm a bit nervous going into this as much as I'd like a 4-3 thriller I just hope we keep it tight with tabb out wide allowing mings to get FORWED to caused problems COYB
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brian_a_mul added 08:45 - Sep 22 2-0 for Town. McGoldrick x2
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afcfee added 08:48 - Sep 22 Does anyone know where the under 21s is being played today????
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Gazelle added 08:56 - Sep 22 Spot on Bossman. Winning but playing c*** is not the answer.
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afcfee added 09:06 - Sep 22 What so Bossman you would rather loose and play well than own and not?
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TR11BLU added 09:14 - Sep 22 Lets hope Mick remembers the cup run comment in Jan 15 and not make eleven changes, his usual cup policy. Ive forgotten what a cup run is.
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blue_steele added 09:27 - Sep 22 you're more likely to win if you play well. being negative and defensive isn't how you get promoted
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OldClactonBlue added 09:56 - Sep 22 There is a strong correlation between playing well and winning, and playing poorly and losing. I was hoping that MM had started to acknowledge that with the more positive tactics!
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tractorkent added 10:51 - Sep 22 there are signs since Bishop has been playing that Town can play GOOD footall,be tightly organised, work hard ,and still win.It is so refreshing watching us play through midfield and not just the long ball to Murphy.
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Razor added 10:52 - Sep 22 Massive game tonight with a win getting us right in there with Rotherham Town to come on Saturday and 2 really hard away games next week.Would love to see us go for it as II think if we score first that could do the trick.Love tosee Henshall playing with Mings, awesome at Derby in second half, so good the manager decided to change it for the next game, at home.Lets hope M people do the business up front----am I expecting too much!?

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battyblue added 10:53 - Sep 22 so are we going to sit back and Hoof i sincerely hope not MM.
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gibbo added 11:32 - Sep 22 Is this not the same response about the Reading game, he wants the same performance but a better result. I hope he drops Skuse the guy this season has nothing to offer in defence and nothing to offer in attack in fact I thought he was Brighton's best player he must of had at least a 90% pass rate to to Brighton player.
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Fat_Boy_Tim added 11:52 - Sep 22 Bossman- I take it you didn't see any of the West Ham game at the weekend then? They played on the deck and with pace, a fantastic performance. We have also played well this season (Norwich aside) and deserve to be up around the playoff places and one of the form teams right now. Defence has looked sharp, Gerken is doing well now and the wings are (Anderson and Mings in particular) are flying. Can't wait to get stuck into Wigan tonight, COYB.

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StowTractorBoy added 12:18 - Sep 22 No away game is easy and I will definitely take a draw tonight and then hopefully beat Rotherham on Saturday. Think MM will keep the same team tonight and whilst Skuse does take some stick on here think he will be useful tonight in the holding role. Come on Town - great chance to get up into the leading pack.
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unknown100 added 12:57 - Sep 22 This is the worst thing a manager could say from a fans point of view and a footballing point of view, that is why I'm not on the super Mick McCarthy fan bus, he has done an amazing job with a terrible budget and stabilised the club, now he needs to take us that next step forward. With no playing style what is the point in trying, you will not win in the play offs with 3 plucky 1-0 wins, and even if miraculously we did get promoted, how embarrassing would it be in the premiership, burnley are a great example of a small squad that started playing football and got promoted, we are not and change needs to happen, I thought the brighton game was one of the dullest games I've ever seen but because we won we were amazing... We offered no sort of performance and got very lucky, I won't pay to go and watch s**t football, would rather finish bottom half but actually see a good game rather than scrappy one nils from corners and free kicks

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goat_man added 13:14 - Sep 22 Honestly, who cares how we win? We've seen more than enough defeats in the last ten years to last a lifetime. We're never going to be able to afford Bayern Munich's squad and play "passing football" consistantly, so lets just try and win games the best way we can. xx
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Stato added 16:27 - Sep 22 With a lot of Wigan supporters unhappy with Rossler and his negative style of play my main concern was that a gritty 0-0 would be welcomed by Mick but wouldn't do too much to put bums on seats for Saturday. Hopefully I am wrong to think this will be a dour affair and the likes of Mings, Bishop, and McGoldrick will all shine and we might see a bigger crowd on Saturday as a result.

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bluemagic74 added 16:45 - Sep 22 Since the Derby County game things have looked alot lot better for us, tonight's game we no is a hard game and not just on paper but I'm confident we may get something out of the game so long as as we can play as good as we can, sometimes in football you need a bit of luck and over past few years we've lacked luck apart from being luckily enough to get mm and tc in who stopped us playing 1st division football by keeping us up and last season was unlucky to lose dids to injury who im shore would of got us the extra points needed to gettin in play-offs, so im still hopeful we can do well this season as long as we can keep injury free and keep iur players in January and add a couple but most of all have some good luck as it's something us town fans dont have a lot of. COYB In mick and tc I trust......

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afcfee added 16:49 - Sep 22 I really don't care how we win but as long as we do and where we finish and hopefully scrape our way up to the elite that's what matters!!! Coyb let's win tonight get a little run going our start of the season what always gives us too much to do if we can be up there well have chance
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blue_steele added 16:55 - Sep 22 away game, on sky, playing a ex-Prem team that's struggling, 3 points would bring us nearly within top six. what do we usually do? we kick start the other teams season, we haven't won any games like this in the last ten years. will we start to win some of these games? or does a win put them in the promotion frame and the pressure is too much to handle? its so much easier being in mid table

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blue_steele added 16:56 - Sep 22 does a win put US
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oscarwhiting added 17:08 - Sep 22 blue_steele whilst i agree with you. can we count the fulham game? I think for me tonight is a serious indicater of what this season has in store for us. yes we had two great wins at home last week ( and i must say it feels great to say we deserved both! :) ) But our away form was poor last season. Not only that but wigan are wounded opposistion. exactly like middlesborough, nottigham forrest and many more were last season. But look what happened against them. Not trying to put a negative tone on tonight its just a thought hoping for a great win on sky tonight. COYB!!!!

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Fat_Boy_Tim added 17:18 - Sep 22 Unknown100 - We played good football against Brighton but if it wasn't good enough for you to pay for maybe you should spend your ticket money on a Barca shirt like other glory hunters.
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lonelyblue added 17:25 - Sep 22 Blimey unknown100, no wonder you want to keep your identity a secret! If you thought the Brighton game was dull, I suggest you go to your nearest seaside pier and watch some children play air hockey. It only lasts about 5 minutes and it goes bash bash bash. Quite exciting really. Then you can come round my house for tea and keep us all entertained with your upbeat views about everything. PS I thought the brighton game was great. Despite its scrappy goals from corners and free kicks. Oh, hang on...

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