After a month of away fixtures, the Imps return to Sincil Bank in the league this weekend, hoping to continue their positive start to the season against Wigan Athletic, writes Tom Morton
Wigan have had a torrid few years and has been the poster boy team for financial mismanagement and suffering EFL point deductions. However, things are looking up for the Latics. Their new owner, a local lad turned billionaire—always handy to have around—took over in June 2023, and despite starting last season on minus eight points, they finished a serviceable twelfth.
They are both free of points deductions this season and, more critically, a transfer embargo imposed last year. Good job; otherwise, this could have been a dull preview.
They’ve been relatively brutal, releasing several players who joined over the last few years. That has created room to bring in some exciting talent. Probably the signature signing is Joe Hugil. The forward is on loan from Manchester United and has already scored three goals.
Of the existing players, it’s worth watching Sam Tickle. The 22-year-old keeper has come up through Wigan’s academy and was finally given the nod last year as their number one. He also has the perfect name for a funny song and ranked sixth in clean sheets during his debut season.
Despite the positives, Wigan haven’t had an excellent start to the season. They sit fifteenth, having won just two games. Admittedly, two of their three losses were against Birmingham and Charlton, so it was not unexpected. But they will be keen to chalk some more points onto the board.
Last time out, they thrashed Bristol 4-0, a scoreline that featured a brace from Hugil and in which the Latics were called “commanding.” That said, I won’t read too much into that result. Bristol looks out of sorts; for example, the third goal was a terrible error from former Imp Josh Griffiths.
We look like the better team on paper; I can see it in the highlights. This Wigan team is still figuring out how to play together. It’s manager Shaun Maloney’s second real season as a first-team manager, and some of that might be showing. There is a lot of promise, and they have that killer threat when the ball drops loose (as bad as Bristol was, it needed the ambition of the strikers to pounce on the errors).
This time, there is some slight grudge to settle. In April, they ended our slim playoff hopes with a fiesty 2-1 win at the Bank. They were a decent team then, and that will be true this weekend, but there will be the hope of putting that setback to rest and taking all three points.
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