Wigan Athletic play host to Shrewsbury Town on Wednesday evening looking for the victory which will see them keep pace at the top of the League One standings.
Meanwhile, the visitors head into the contest at the DW Stadium sitting just above the relegation zone, a consequence of losing just one of their last five league outings.
Match preview
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Wigan have been far from outstanding in recent weeks, the Latics winning just two of their last nine outings by more than a one-goal margin.
Nevertheless, remaining unbeaten over that amount of matches has retained their tag of title favourites, and taking advantage of their game in hand in the future would put Leam Richardson's team three points clear in first place.
At a time when they have collected 10 points from a possible 12 in the league, Wigan turned to FA Cup action on Sunday, eventually prevailing from a tough tie at Colchester United with a 2-1 victory.
Callum Lang chipped in with both goals, the 23-year-old having now contributed five strikes from his last four appearances in all competitions.
On a negative note, Wigan have gone five games without posting a clean sheet, the last time that they shut out the opposition coming on November 10 against Wednesday's opponents in the EFL Trophy.
However, they face Shrewsbury at a time when the Shropshire side are very much on the up with that setback at the DW Stadium one of just two defeats in eight matches.
More recently, Steve Cotterill's team have collected four points from a League One double-header against Sunderland and Charlton Athletic, capitalising on the poor form of the teams around them.
Saturday's 2-1 success away at Carlisle United in the FA Cup also made it three games unbeaten in all competitions for just the second time this season.
Daniel Udoh's three-game scoring streak came to an end, but Ryan Bowman found the back of the net for the first time since a hat-trick against Cambridge United on October 23.
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Team News
Goalkeeper Ben Amos will return for Wigan after deputy Jamie Jones was given an outing in the FA Cup.
Further changes are expected with Curtis Tilt, Tendayi Darikwa, Tom Naylor, James McClean and Thelo Aasgaard all likely to come back into the starting lineup.
While George Nurse deputised at right wing-back for Shrewsbury at the weekend, Joshua Daniels is an alternative after returning to the squad for the Carlisle game.
Rekeil Pyke may also come back into contention after a minor hamstring injury, but Cotterill is likely to be without Ethan Ebanks-Landell after a recurrence of the same issue.
Wigan Athletic possible starting lineup:
Amos; Kerr, Whatmough, Tilt; Darikwa, Power, Naylor, McClean; Aasgaard; Lang, Keane
Shrewsbury Town possible starting lineup:
Marosi; Leahy, Pennington, Nurse; Daniels, Vela, Bennett, Ogbeta; Udoh; Bloxham, Bowman
We say: Wigan Athletic 2-0 Shrewsbury Town
Confidence will be high within the Shrewsbury ranks after their victory in the FA Cup at the weekend. Nevertheless, there have been few signs of any let up from the Latics, who we are backing to enjoy a relatively stress-free 90 minutes on Wednesday night.
Top tip
Darren Plant
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 51.2%. A draw had a probability of 26.3% and a win for Shrewsbury Town had a probability of 22.52%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wigan Athletic win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.81%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.27%) and 2-1 (9.13%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.28%), while for a Shrewsbury Town win it was 0-1 (8.26%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Wigan Athletic would win this match.
