Wanderers Head Coach Steven Schumacher knows the importance of Saturday lunchtime’s derby away at Wigan Athletic and he is ready for a competitive contest.
The Whites will be aiming for a third straight win against Ryan Lowe’s Latics when the two sides go head-to-head in the 12:30pm kick-off at the Brick Community Stadium in Sky Bet League One.
Wanderers delivered an emphatic 4-1 home triumph in September’s reverse fixture, and on their last visit to Wigan, Chris Forino’s injury-time winner sealed a 1-0 victory in April 2025.
Previewing the clash, Schumacher told Wanderers TV: “It’s the biggest game of the season, I said that before the last time we played them at home, it’s probably the first fixture our fans look for when they come out in June, and we did well in the last one and we’re hoping to go and do as equally as well in this one.
“It’s a huge game, everybody knows what’s at stake and how important it is to our fans, and we need to stick a performance in that shows how much we care.
“You’ve got to get the balance right in a derby game, but first and foremost you’ve got to compete and win your tackles, stand up to the physical aspect of it. It’s always played at a high tempo, it’s always competitive and it’s two teams going at it trying to win and we need to make sure we’re ready for that fight, and when we get an opportunity to play our football, which we think is our strength, is to that as well.
“It can’t just be a fight for 90 minutes. We’ve got to find a way to break them down.
“It does give you confidence, especially away from home, there were two spells where we hadn’t beaten Wigan at home and away, and we managed to get over that spell. This game is a whole different challenge, it’s at a part of the season where points are really crucial, we need to get back on track from our own personal point of view and start playing a bit better, and there’s no better game to start than Wigan away.
“Training has been good. We had a good chat after the game on Tuesday where we spoke, the performance was a bit flat, same against Peterborough, the performances in the last two games haven’t been right, results have gone against us in the others but we’ve played okay in some of them, so we had a good chat on Tuesday, cleared the air a little bit in the dressing room and got back at it on Thursday, the training session was excellent, they were nice and sharp, the game plan has been said to them so hopefully they can go and execute.”
With a sold-out away end of 4,600 Wanderers supporters set to cheer on their team, Schumacher has challenged his players to put on a performance for the travelling fans.
He added: “Last year the fans were incredible there, and I think there four-and-a-half thousand there again, sold out which is to be expected, and we need to put in a performance and raise it to the level that we know we can play at, and if we do that and get the result that we want, we’ll see scenes behind the goal like we saw last year, so we’re looking forward to the game.”
Watch Steven’s pre-match interview in full by clicking here!
