Wigan Athletic must beat Millwall to keep alive slim survival hopes – Gary Rowett discusses Saturday’s match

Wigan Athletic have to win their home game against Millwall on Saturday to stand any chance of avoiding relegation to League One.

The Latics are seven points adrift of safety with only nine still available to gain.

Shaun Maloney’s side travel to fellow strugglers Reading the following weekend before wrapping up at home to Rotherham United.

Former Millwall striker Steve Morison, on punditry duty for Sky Sports in midweek, claimed that the fact both Wigan and Blackpool are in dire straits will help his old employer as they have no option but to try and take maximum points.

Birmingham beat the South Londoners on Tuesday. Lukas Jutkiewicz scored in the first half and the Blues then soaked up heavy pressure.

Will Keane scored Wigan’s winner at Stoke City on Tuesday.

Maloney said: “If we perform like we did tonight, anything is possible. While it’s mathematically still on, you never know, you really don’t. We’ve just got to keep winning and see what happens.”

Lions boss Gary Rowett told the South London Press: “If I watch Wigan anyway they have been quite expansive. They move the ball quite well and tried to play quite an open style.

“They’ve been pretty creative in some of the games, even if they haven’t won. Shaun has spoken about it, that they just haven’t scored goals, but played quite well.

“Yeah, they have got to win – but how they go about that is completely up to them. For all I know they might sit in and camp themselves on the edge of their own box for 90 minutes and hope to nick one – you don’t know.

“I would think that teams like Wigan and Blackpool are going to want to play the last few home games and give their fans something to be excited about, regardless of where they are in the league.

“So of course they want to win. I’m pretty sure they will be pretty much front foot to try and win the game.

“But we’ve got to make sure we put our performance in and do what we need to do. We have to be flexible. I didn’t necessarily think Birmingham would come and sit in, in the way that they did – because they hadn’t done it in the four or five games before it. But they did. They came to spoil and sit in. For us that is a bit of an issue at home. But away from home it has been less of a problem.”