Wigan Athletic V Blackpool: Managers' past words on upcoming opponents from Preston North End and Bolton Wanderers days
Blackpool travel to the Brick Community Stadium to take on Wigan Athletic on Saturday (K.O. 12.30pm).
Blackpool and Wigan Athletic both have managers who know their opponents well from past roles.
The two teams go head-to-head at the Brick Community Stadium on Saturday (K.O. 12.30pm), and will be determined to head into the Christmas period with an early present in the form of three points.
Seasiders boss Ian Evatt has overseen a few feisty clashes against Latics in recent years, having spent four-and-a-half seasons with their Greater Manchester rivals Bolton Wanderers.
During that period, the 44-year-old didn’t enjoy too many derby days, losing four of the five league meetings between the two, and drawing the other.
Evatt’s Bolton froze in the heat of battle against Wigan
Evatt’s final meeting with Wigan as Trotters head coach came last December, with now-Blackpool striker Dale Taylor being on the scoresheet in a 2-0 victory for the visitors to the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Reflecting on his side’s struggles against Latics after that loss, he stated: “There's four or five games (a season) where we look frightened, we look timid, we look just a shade of what we normally are, and those tend to be against our local rivals, and some of the big teams in the division, for whatever reason.
“It's not a coincidence, it's a continuing theme. Regardless of how many times we discuss it, it seems to follow us around.
“The players have the right answers and solutions in the lead-up but, when it comes to the heat of battle, we seem to freeze in these games.
“We've opened up old wounds again today, and that was always going to be the case, and we have to find a way of stopping this, stopping this theme that's following us around."
“I said in the week, it doesn't matter how Wigan have been playing, or the results they've had, they always seem to find their best football against us.”
Lowe’s ‘strange’ past words on Blackpool
In the opposite dugout, Latics boss Ryan Lowe knows what a rivalry with Blackpool is like, having faced the Seasiders a number of times during his stint as Preston North End head coach.
The 47-year-old made his feelings towards the Seasiders clear in a war of words surrounding a Central League game in September 2023.
Lowe was left unhappy after Blackpool named a number of first-team players in their starting XI for the game at Springfields.
Discussing the incident at the time, he said: “I was a bit disappointed, because we had a conversation with them that we were going to play the kids - and they chose to bring senior players. So, that is their problem, not ours.
“We won’t do that again. I was disappointed with them; how they went about it. I suppose it helped our youngsters, really. We wanted to play our youngsters against their youngsters, which would’ve been fair. But, they chose to have their first-team players and first-team staff there.
“That is their prerogative, not ours. Our kids probably got more out of it than their pros probably got out of it, because it was a big test for them. So yeah, disappointed in what they did, but that’s Blackpool for you.”
Following Lowe’s say on the matter, then-Seasiders boss Neil Critchley described the comments as ‘strange’ and insisted that the club’s intention to name senior players had been made clear before the game.
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