Our team faces its most difficult task of the season so far when it travels up to the DW stadium on Saturday to play second place Wigan Athletic. Until Tuesday evening's 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday Wigan had been unbeaten in the league for 13 games stretching back to mid October. In all they have won 17, drawn 5 and lost only 5 and, although their goals record (48) is nothing special, their defence is second best in League One (26 in 27 games). They have four games in hand on their nearest pursuers and they would seem to be hot favourites to gain promotion with Rotherham.
There wasn't much in Charlton's performance at Bolton to suggest that we will pose a great threat on Saturday, but there is some cause for hope. Wigan have a fantastic away record - 10 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats. At home, however, they are not so special with 7 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats. Lincoln, Milton Keynes and Sheffield Wednesday have left the DW with all three points this season and Ipswich and Oxford have both forced draws in the last couple of months. Gillingham and Shrewsbury have only lost narrowly.
The main danger comes from former Manchester United youth player Will Keane who, after undistinguished stays at Hull and Ipswich, has scored 14 in 24 League games for The Latics this season. Callum Lang has netted 8 and James McLean has chipped in with 6. Former Sunderland striker Charlie Wyke had scored 5 before collapsing in training last November and, to ensure they have enough cover if necessary, Wigan added Josh Magennis to the squad in the January window. Josh scored only 10 goals in his 90 games at Championship level for Bolton and Hull but should still be a threat in League One, although he is likely to be only on the bench on Saturday. Of course, Ben Amos will be in goal.
The absence of Ryan Innis, Chuks Aneke and Jayden Stockley from Charlton's starting eleven at Bolton made a significant difference and travelling fans will hope at least to see Innis and Aneke returning at Wigan. Scott Fraser was impressive in his short cameo and it may well be that Alex Gilbey will make way for him. It was Chuks who won us all three points up there last season (March 2021) but Wigan have a much stronger squad now. We managed to match them at The Valley in September for 88 minutes, but were ultimately beaten by two late goals.
We all recall that it wasn't that long ago that the future existence of both clubs was under threat. Wigan went into administration in 2020. There followed a tortuous period before a buyer was eventually found and during this time their supporters raised funds to keep the club going. Under the ownership of Bahrain businessman Talal Mubarak al-Hammad they finished one point above the relegation places last season but since then their rebuilding and recruitment has evidently been more successful than ours.
Johnnie Jackson was disappointed by our defending at Bolton but upbeat about Saturday:
"On paper it’s one of the more difficult fixtures you’re going to face but we normally do alright in those ones. We went to Sunderland and won, we went to Portsmouth and won. We went to the form team in the division on Tuesday and, for me, have only been undone by our own poor defending in those situations. We certainly didn’t get opened up really at any stage. We’ll go there, prepare right, make ourselves difficult to beat and know that in any game that we’ll always get opportunities because of the quality that we have on the pitch.”
A point would raise all our spirits.