PREVIEW | Rovers vs Wigan Athletic

9 April 2021

Rovers are looking to get back to winning ways when they face Wigan Athletic at the Keepmoat Stadium this weekend.

Andy Butler’s side were beaten 2-1 at Bristol Rovers in their last league outing on Easter Monday.

Wigan’s recent form

The Latics have won one of the past six league games stretching back to a 2-0 victory at Plymouth Argyle on March 9. They followed that up with a draw at AFC Wimbledon, before being beaten 3-1 on the road at Accrington Stanley.

They earned another valuable point in their bid to escape relegation against Ipswich Town a week later, but were then narrowly beaten at Gillingham. Their last outing saw them again lose by the odd goal against Portsmouth at the DW Stadium.

Club News

Wigan Athletic programme available now

10 April 2021

The man in charge

Leam Richardson has been in caretaker charge of Wigan since John Sheridan’s departure to fellow Sky Bet League One side Swindon Town in November. Since taking the role, the 41-year-old has taken charge of 28 fixtures, winning seven, drawing seven and losing 14, giving him an overall win percentage of 25%.

Ones to watch

Viv Solomon-Otabor

A product of the Birmingham City academy, the lively winger made his debut for the blues in the 2015/16 campaign and scored his first league goal against Fulham in that same season. With the majority of his appearances coming off the bench, he spent time on loan with Bolton, Blackpool and Portsmouth, before a permanent switch to Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia in the summer of 2019.

His spell abroad was a short one though and he returned to the EFL with Wigan at the start of this season.

Callum Lang

Lang joined Wigan in 2013 after coming through the youth ranks at Liverpool. Since arriving at the DW Stadium he has spent plenty of time on loan at other EFL clubs to aid his development. He impressed for both Morecambe and Oldham, and spent last season with Shrewsbury Town.

He started the current campaign with Scottish side Motherwell, but with Wigan in need of goals was recalled in January. The 22-year-old scored his first Latics goal on his first appearance back in blue and white, and has hit the back of the net a further six times since then.

Jamie Proctor

After starting his career at Preston, Proctor played more than 30 league games for his hometown club before making his name with Crawley Town in the EFL with 13 goals in 36 league starts. That form earned him a move to Fleetwood Town in 2014, with his career taking him to eight different clubs since then.

He is still on the books of Rovers’ South Yorkshire rivals Rotherham United, and joined Wigan on loan in February having spent the first-half of the campaign with Sky Bet League Two side Newport County.

Last time out

Joe Garner scored the only goal of the game when the two sides last met in October, securing a crucial 1-0 win for Wigan at the DW Stadium.

More ahead of this match

Back to basics for Butler

Anderson aiming to lead by example

Meet the officials

Watch Rovers vs Wigan Athletic on iFollow

Watch pre-match interviews

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Match Previews

Match Reports

REPORT | Rovers 1 Wigan Athletic 4

10 April 2021

Rovers suffer defeat at the hands of a determined Wigan Athletic side who are fighting relegation.

Andy Butler made three changes to the side that lost to Bristol Rovers on Easter Monday with Joe Wright and Josh Sims returning from injury and coming into the team alongside Scott Robertson. It meant that there was no place in the starting XI for James Coppinger (injured), Taylor Richards and Fejiri Okenabirhie.

The game got off to the worst possible start for Butler’s men as they went behind within the opening three minutes when the visitors lashed a ball into the box which Joe Dodoo latched onto, turned and blasted past Ellery Balcombe.

Shortly after this, Wigan doubled their lead through Thelo Aasgaard after Rovers failed to clear the danger away from a corner.

The Latics continued to have most of the chances with Will Keane forcing Balcombe into a great save down to his bottom right corner.

Wigan made it three on the 34^th minute as they cut Rovers’ back line apart with ease before an unmarked Viv Solomon-Otabor could tap in at the far post.

Going 3-0 down so early forced Butler into an early double change with Branden Horton and Scott Robertson being replaced by John Bostock and Taylor Richards.

Richards gave Rovers a lift by getting a goal back for his side in the dying moments of the first-half which gave a little bit of hope for Butler’s side heading into the break.

Danny Amos replaced Reece James at the interval in a like-for-like swap.

Richards’ goal accompanied by a half-time talking to seemed to have given Rovers more fight to try and get something out of the game with them attacking with more intent and pace in the early stages of the second-half.

On the 55^th minute a sublime ball threaded through by Richards unlocked a run from Jason Lokilo who faced Jamie Jones one-on-one, but unfortunately the winger was not able to beat the Latics captain.

Sims beat his man down the left-hand side and decided to go alone on goal, but his shot was straight at Jones in Wigan’s goal.

Over the course of the second-half, Butler introduced Madger Gomes and Fejiri Okenabirhie to the game, withdrawing Matt Smith and Josh Sims.

Despite improvements from Rovers in the second period, when Wigan attacked they still showed how big of threat they can be with Joe Wright and Tom Anderson both called into action on occasions to block chances.

Then with 10 minutes to go Wigan wrapped up the game when they hit Rovers on the break and Keane was able to tap past Balcombe.