 Friday, 22nd Feb 2008 13:32 Paul Jewell goes back to Wigan for the first time since resigning following last season's great escape. Wigan Athletic v Derby County Wigan are again struggling this season but Paul Jewell is tipping them to survive. In an interview with the Derby Evening Telegraph he said; "I think Wigan is a brilliant club, if they can stay in the Premier League this time - and I think they will - I am sure Dave Whelan will look to progress the club even further." “I would really be gutted if Derby and Wigan went down. That would be a double-whammy for me. "You don't work at a place for six years without developing an affinity, and the same goes for Bradford. But I think they will stay up. With the players there now, they will fancy their chances. I feel 36 points will be more than enough to stay up.” It doesn't seem five minutes since we played Wigan at Pride Park. The Ramzone review of the game described it as “88 minutes of nothingness in arguably the worst Premier League game ever and if the Rams weren't already relegated before they certainly are now." Antoine Sibierski scored the winner in a turgid game that saw Claude Davis sent off for a clumsy elbow. Steve Bruce was probably not happy with what he saw that day. Wigan looked almost as bad as us and that doesn't bode well for a club determined to stay in the Premiership. Wigan signed ex-Forest striker Marlon King from Watford. Wilson Palacios, Maynor Figueroa, Erik Edman and Erik Hagen also joined in the transfer window while Antonio Valencia's deal was made permanent. Fitz Hall and Denny Landzaat were let go. Since playing us, Wigan have only managed one win - a 1-0 win over West Ham at the JJB, and losing the other 4 including a 2-0 defeat at the hands of RK Sunderland. Bruce wasn't happy at the result. He told the BBC; "We didn't deserve to lose because we were the better team but we didn't take our chances. Their keeper has also made some excellent saves. All I could say to the lads at the end was hard luck. We were slack for the only time in the game when they got their first goal but there was nothing we could do about the strike for their second." Current Wigan Squad No. Position Player Last 5 games Wigan 1-2 Everton Danger Men Marcus Bent is Wigan’s top scorer with seven goals. That was what I said before the game at Pride Park and it’s still true now. Bent is having some difficulty finding the net and last troubled the scorer on December 22nd. New signing Marlon King is yet to score. You know only to well what will happen if we boo him for his Forest connection tomorrow. Antoine Sibierski has scored 5 from Midfield including the winner at Pride Park. Austrian Paul Scharner is stuck on four goals Emile Heskey will have a late check on his back injury but is expected to start however Ryan Taylor will be missing. New signing Erik Edman could replace him. The Rams The fact that the manager and team seem to gave given up on the season doesn’t seem to have deterred out away support who are expected to make the trip up the M6 for the game. Some of the more established Premiership sides would kill for away support like ours – or maybe not if the Game 39 proposal is anything to go by. It would be nice to win one game on the road this season as a thank you to the fans who could explain to even a Newcastle fan what ‘long suffering’ really means. Jay McEveley may make a welcome return for this game. When he was injured by a clumsy challenge at Bolton by Kevin Davies, it looked as if his season was over however despite the fact that the season is over, "Jay has worked hard to get back and has shown a great attitude," said Paul Jewell. Another player back in contention is David Jones. So far this season we’ve seen little of the player that Billy Davies rated at worth £5m. It’s fair to say that life in the Premiership at Manchester United does not prepare a player for life in the Premiership at Derby. He’s likely to make the bench unless Paul Jewell feels like experimenting. Mick’s team; Carroll, Leacock, Moore, Stubbs, McEveley, Savage, Pearson, Ghaly, Barnes, Miller, Earnshaw. William Hill has Wigan as favourites at 4/7 while the Rams are at an unlikely 4/1. The draw is at 5/2 Marlon King is favourite to score at 6/4 while Marcus Bent is at 13/8. Kenny Miller is worth a flutter at 3/1 while most of our other strikers are at 7/2. Mile Sterjovski is at 4/1 Information for travelling fans Mick’s Prediction I can’t see us winning this one. We’ve given up the ghost of this season and Wigan are fighting to stay in the division. This is a ‘must win’ game for Wigan and they were simply way to organised for us at Pride Park. Prove me wrong guys.
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