Oldham Athletic will be continuing their pre-season preparations on Saturday at Boundary Park in what will be only their second game so far of the summer when they host Wigan Athletic.
The visitors enjoyed promotion last season and are hoping to get themselves ready for the new Championship campaign in the best possible manner, setting up an enticing encounter.
Match preview
Oldham Athletic kickstarted their pre-season campaign last Saturday with a game against Bamber Bridge, and despite the fact they are further up the football pyramid, they were held to a goalless draw.
While it was not the ideal way to start the summer, the fact that they kept a clean sheet is a positive that the Latics will want to take into the new season.
During their relegation from League Two in the 2021-22 division only one team conceded more goals than them, and that was Scunthorpe United, who ended up finishing bottom.
The hosts will be hoping to show some attacking prowess as well though if they want to get on track to try and earn an immediate promotion back into the fourth tier of English football.
Oldham boss John Sheridan is someone who knows this weekend's opponents fairly well as he spent 15 games in charge of the club in 2020, which should provide him with some knowledge to potentially use.
Wigan Athletic had a vastly different season during the one just gone, as while their opponents this weekend were relegated from League Two, they were enjoying promotion into the Championship.
The Latics were dominant throughout their campaign, winning the league with only eight losses to their name, which is form they have continued into pre-season.
Wigan have already played two games, and they have shown no shortage of confidence after kicking things off with a game of their own against Bamber Bridge which they won 5-1.
That was followed up by a game against Bolton Wanderers, and yet again it was Leam Richardson's team that got the win, this time keeping a clean sheet as well with a match ending 1-0.
Wigan are now hoping to continue their build-up to the new campaign, with their preparations being halted yesterday as their planned match with Hyde Park was cancelled.
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Team News
Oldham were able to welcome back Mike Fondop-Talum for the recent draw against Bamber Bridge, and the hosts will be looking to continue pushing him back to full match sharpness.
The club have brought in several fresh faces in the transfer window so far, and Zaine Francis-Angol will be hoping to open his account for them this weekend.
Chris Porter did miss out on that friendly match as he suffered a slight issue during the warm-up, but that is something that he should have recovered from in order to feature at some point on Saturday.
For the visitors, Callum Lang has proven himself to be an attacking threat so far in pre-season, and he is someone that will be searching to add another goal to his tally.
Unfortunately, there is still a lack of fresh faces for Wigan, but there will no doubt be opportunities once again for the younger members of the squad to get some game time.
We say: Oldham Athletic 0-3 Wigan Athletic
These are two teams that are heading in completely opposite directions at the moment, and that is something that will likely be reflected in the outcome of this match.
While Oldham Athletic have plenty of new faces at the club, the visitors should bring a much stronger squad that is more than capable of securing a comfortable victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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