West Bromwich Albion vs Wigan Athletic; Sky Bet Championship
West Bromwich Albion vs Wigan Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
The HawthornsAttendance25,555.
West Brom vs Wigan preview: Championship clash live on Sky Sports red button
Watch live on Sky Sports red button and the mobile app from 2.55pm on Boxing Day.
Monday 24 December 2018 13:15, UK
West Brom boss Darren Moore could stick with an unchanged side against Wigan.
Moore has played the same team in the last three matches and has seen his men win seven points.
Should he wish to freshen things up, Moore has options with striker Hal Robson-Kanu (knee), defender Kyle Bartley (knee) and midfielder James Morrison (muscle fatigue) back in contention. Robson-Kanu and Morrison were unused substitutes in the 4-0 win at Rotherham on Saturday.
Wigan will assess James Vaughan as they look to halt a run of three straight Championship defeats. The striker was forced off with an injury early in the second half of the home loss to Birmingham on Saturday.
Nick Powell is still struggling with a hamstring problem while Antonee Robinson (ankle) remains out along with midfielder Michael Jacobs (hamstring). Gavin Massey (hamstring) and Chey Dunkley (knee) made their returns to the squad last week but were unused substitutes against both Ipswich and Birmingham.
Opta stats
West Bromwich Albion have won just one of their last seven meetings with Wigan Athletic (W1 D2 L4), with that solitary victory coming in November 2012 (2-1).
The last time that WBA and Wigan met at the Hawthorns was on May 4th 2013, in the Premier League. A week after that fixture, Wigan lifted the FA Cup thanks to a 1-0 win over Manchester City.
West Brom haven't won a league game on Boxing Day since 2012 (vs QPR) - since then they have drawn two (2013 and 2017) and lost three (2014, 2015, 2016).
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Wigan manager Paul Cook has a 100% Football League win record in games played on Wednesday, winning all four as Wigan boss and one with Chesterfield.
West Brom have scored at least once in all 19 of their home league matches in 2018 - in 2017, they failed to score in nine of their 21 home league games.
Wigan have taken just one point from their last nine away Championship matches (P9 W0 D1 L8).
Prutton's prediction
If anyone can catch Leeds and Norwich and stop them breaking away it looks like it will be West Brom. The Baggies have had a couple of decent wins lately but the form of the top two means they are still five points adrift.
This is a good opportunity to try and close that gap because Wigan are dreadful away, picking up just four points on the road all season. Comfortable home win for me.
David Prutton predicts: 3-1 (12/1 with Sky Bet)
