Wigan Athletic will be looking to get back to winning ways at the first time of asking when they travel to the Reebok Stadium to take on Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
The Latics saw their 10-match unbeaten streak come to an end on Tuesday as fellow promotion hopefuls Queens Park Rangers edged to a 1-0 win at Loftus Road despite having a man sent off late on.
Just three defeats in 24 matches is still a formidable record, however, and as a result of that Wigan can afford one or two slip-ups and still be confident of making the playoffs.
They currently sit five points clear of seventh-placed Nottingham Forest and have the luxury of a game in hand over the teams around them in the table, making Uwe Rosler's side strong favourites to still be in the top six at the end of the season.
However, Rosler will be thankful that his side's defeat in midweek went unpunished, with Reading, Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion also losing.
That loss was an increasingly rare blot on Wigan's copybook away from home, where they had strung together a run of six straight wins before Tuesday.
The worry for Rosler now will be ensuring that his side don't let their minds drift to a Wembley FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal next month as they still have plenty to fight for in the league.
Amidst a busy fixture schedule it will come as welcome news for the Latics that long-term absentees Shaun Maloney and Gary Caldwell are nearing fitness again, but Ben Watson and Chris McCann are both still out.
Bolton have been in impressive form themselves in recent weeks, with Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Blackpool making it just one defeat in eight for the Trotters.
Such a spell could not have come at a better time for the club, who have now moved away from the relegation zone and should be safe from the drop, barring an unlikely set of results.
With vastly superior goal difference to the majority of the teams below them, as well as a 12-point gap to the bottom three, manager Dougie Freedman can now breathe a little easier and start planning for next season.
Of course, he will not fully relax until it is mathematically impossible for his side to be relegated, but consigning Wigan to a second consecutive defeat - something that hasn't happened since December - could lift them as high as 14th in the table.
Three wins and three clean sheets in their last four home outings certainly suggests that they could get something out of the game, but they have not beaten any of the current top 10 at the Reebok so far this season.
Bolton could name an unchanged lineup from their midweek win, with Alex Baptiste still unavailable through suspension and Stuart Holden and Marc Tierney out injured.
Recent form
Bolton: WWDLDW
Wigan: WWWDWL
Possible starting lineups
Bolton: Bogdan; Hutton, Knight, Wheater, Ream; Danns, Medo, Spearing, Davies; Jutkiewicz, Mason
Wigan: Al-Habsi; Perch, Barnett, Ramis, Beausejour; McArthur, Collison; McClean, Gomez, Waghorn; Fortune
Sports Mole says: 0-2
No Data Analysis info
