Swansea City have one objective today and that’s not to let all the hard work of late deflate the big Swansea support heading north to cheer on the Jacks. It’s a three game run with some hope of sorts, but more than that the performance must not drop to the levels of February.

A well earned draw against Coventry City on Friday afternoon saw a confused and questionable response from certain quarters. Maybe bleeding the hope that they wanted the sky blues to take the points ? Just a thought. It’s very hard to determine the mindset of that sort of person. Russell Martin is going nowhere ! The real fans head north today and all of us have every hope we can see a fine end to this last chunk of games.

And it’s pay cash at the turnstile despite Swansea selling well in advance of a thousand tickets.

There is one thing standing in the Swans way and that’s Wigan Athletic. They are a team in the land of desperation, they simply must win. We should also remember this, Wigan don’t get hammered, they lose a lot hence their league position, but let’s not forget that Blackpool put six past QPR a few weeks ago, if Wigan smell blood they could embarrass Swansea. Russell Martin knows this. “We have to make sure that’s the right thing for our team. We always focus on bringing two things: intensity and courage. The intensity to run for each other and the courage to play. When we have one of those things but not the other, it’s not the same, but when we bring both I think we’re a really good team at this level, and I think we’ve shown that a few times this season. When we have intensity and courage we’re a good team at this level and I think we’ve shown that this season”

Those qualities are paramount and we understand there could be a change or two in the Swansea midfield, and ‘possibly’ one at wing back. It’s a balancing act for Martin, there is a call for fresh faces to play in these games, but really that would disrupt the current upturn in form. Any changes are more likely to see the squad utilised. The likes of Joe Allen and Ollie Cooper will be wanting starts, so maybe that’s where the Swans manager will look ?

Wigan will use their ability at set pieces to win this game. Manager Shaun Maloney will be held in very high esteem if he can prevent Wigan returning to League one after last seasons promotion. It’s highly unlikely with only three wins in twenty matches, but Easter has already thrown up some real championship talking points. Will Keane ( below ), last seasons top scorer for the Latics with twenty six goals is the danger man for the Swans to watch. If the Latics go down then Keane will be a target for other clubs. He has two years left to run on his Wigan contract.

One manager who is certain that Wigan Athletic will stay up is Paul Heckingbottom, the Sheffield United manager saw his side win 1-0 against the Latics on Friday. And it was one tough game. "It's looking tough, but you have to look at how they're playing, which I did in the lead-up. I know people turned up to the game today expecting us to roll them over, thinking it was a team trying to get to the Premier League against the bottom of the table. But they haven't watched the amount of games involving Wigan that I've watched. From what I've seen, there's a real bravery when they get on the ball, they're not scared or fazed at the position they're in. That's probably the message Shaun's been giving them, and there's also a great energy about them. They're fighting and working for each other, so I think they're still in with a great shout”

Make no mistake about it todays game will be a real grind and examination of Swansea City’s credentials. That’s why something from this game will be seen as a positive.

Wigan Athletic v Swansea City kicks Off at 3pm today and is available to watch on the Sky Sports red button

Photographs licensed from Reuters

Swansea City Polls