Blues travel to Wigan Athletic this evening looking to build on Saturday’s success away at Leeds.

Wigan Athletic

Gary Caldwell’s side have won one and lost one of their opening league fixtures, bouncing back from a 2-1 defeat away to Bristol City with a 3-0 thumping of local rivals Blackburn Rovers at the DW Stadium.

Nick Powell scored in that game but he may not start in this one having not attained full match fitness yet; midfielder Shaun MacDonald may make his debut.

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Blues

Blues are only missing Nicolai Brock-Madsen (Olympic duty) and James Vaughan (quad injury) for this game, and are potentially unlikely to be changed from Saturday, meaning no starting debuts for either Che Adams or Greg Stewart.

Having been somewhat miffed that the team named on Saturday was seemingly lacking in pace and creativity it was a pleasant surprise to see Blues score twice and win. I completely understood why Rowett was unwilling to change things drastically to give debuts and I can’t see him changing a winning formula tonight; the key is that he has got options now on the bench to change things.

Ref

Jeremy Simpson takes charge of this one. The Lancashire-based ref took charge of 35 games last season, showing 115 yellow cards and five reds. His last Blues game was in April 2015, when Blues beat Charlton 1-0. In that game he booked two players including Jonathan Grounds.

Suspension Watch

Two bookings: David Davis
One booking: Jonathan Grounds, Michael Morrison, Maikel Kieftenbeld, Stephen Gleeson and Jack Storer

The cutoff date for a player receiving a ban for five bookings is November 30, 2016
The cutoff date for a player receiving a ban for ten bookings is March 11, 2017

Tags: Che Adams, Greg Stewart, Wigan Athletic