An intriguing EFL Cup second round tie takes place at the DW Stadium on Tuesday evening, as Wigan Athletic meet Lancashire rivals Bolton Wanderers.
The fans will be relishing the first derby between the two sides in over two years, and will be hoping to gain bragging rights by knocking the other out of the EFL Cup.
Match preview
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Despite the financial difficulties and all of the off-the-field problems that came with it, Wigan managed to survive the drop from League One last year. This season, they will look to carry their impressive start to the campaign into a potential cup run.
Despite facing four fellow promotion hopefuls in League One so far, Wigan have managed to win two and draw one after an opening day defeat away to Sunderland.
These results so far have left the hosts in a relatively solid position of ninth, after a 2-0 win away to Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
In terms of the EFL Cup, The Latics caused an upset in order to reach the second round of the competition, after beating Championship side Hull City on penalties in the first round. This followed after a 1-1 draw away at the MKM Stadium in regular time.
After already improving on last year's first round exit to Fleetwood Town, Leam Richardson will be hoping his side can triumph over their rivals in order to progress to the third round and use it to continue their momentum of a promotion push in the league as well.
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Bolton do in fact find themselves in an extremely similar situation to their rivals - just like their hosts, the visitors also caused an upset in the first round earlier this month.
Championship side Barnsley visited the University of Bolton Stadium but were beaten by Bolton on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
In addition to this, The Trotters have also found themselves in financial chaos in recent years, which has seen them drop down from the Premier League to League Two over time.
However, manager Ian Evatt earned promotion at the first time of asking with his side last year, to return to League One and face rivals Wigan in a league campaign as well as this cup tie.
Despite only just returning to the division, Bolton have started positively in the league so far. An unbeaten start to the campaign currently leaves them in seventh place, after two draws and two wins, with one of these wins arriving on Saturday at home to Oxford United in a 2-1 triumph.
The visitors will be wanting to get one over on their rivals, whilst building on their positive start to the season overall, in order to progress to the third round of the EFL Cup.
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Team News
Wigan will probably look to rotate the side after yet another midweek match here. Since beginning their campaign at the start of this month, there has been a fixture either every three or four days.
Thankfully, they appear to be heading into the tie with no injury concerns despite this schedule. Midfielder Gwion Edwards had previously been unavailable due to injury but returned to the substitutes' bench in the weekend win over Charlton.
Once again, in a very similar situation to their rivals, Bolton are also likely to rotate their lineup for the cup tie after a hectic schedule to start the season with matches every few days.
The visitors also appear to have no injury concerns ahead of the trip to the DW Stadium, which allows manager Ian Evatt to rotate his side as he desires ahead of a promotion push and potential cup run.
Wigan Athletic possible starting lineup:
Jones; Power, Naylor, Watts, Robinson; Smith, Cousins; Aasgaard, Keane, Jones; Humphrys
Bolton Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Dixon; Jones, Almeida, Johnston, Gordon; Williams, Lee; Isgrove, Sarcevic, Delfouneso; Doyle
We say: Wigan Athletic 1-1 Bolton Wanderers (Wigan to win on penalties)
This intriguing derby appears to be a tough second round EFL Cup tie to call. We say this will be a tight affair after a strong start to the season for two similarly matched teams, so a 1-1 draw appears likely, with penalties being required to decide the tie.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Wigan Athletic win with a probability of 39.04%. A win for Bolton Wanderers had a probability of 35.44% and a draw had a probability of 25.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wigan Athletic win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.05%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.54%) and 2-0 (6.4%). The likeliest Bolton Wanderers win was 0-1 (8.54%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.07%).
