Lee Bowyer told the local press on Thursday that he is expecting a tough game at Wigan. 

He highlighted Kieffer Moore and Jamal Lowe as the danger men‎ and realises his defence will have to be on their mettle to keep them quiet.

Bowyer explained that the Latics play a similar style to Birmingham:

“It’s going to be tough. They’ve got a good manager (Paul Cook), he’s experienced, and he’s got a good set of players that work hard for him. 

“They stayed up last season and you can see why because they try and give everything and I’m sure that’s what he demands. 

“I think it’s going to be a similar game to last weekend. They play a similar way so it’s going to be tough.

“Again, the first goal is so important, so we have to be solid.

“Kieffer Moore up top and Jamal Lowe are both very good players. They’re players that we played against last season and they both caused us problems. 

“Every team has strengths and weaknesses and so do we. We have to work hard and stop them when they’re in possession and defend properly.

“Then, once we get the ball, we have to move the ball and try and create problems for them so it’s going to be a tough game.”‎ 

injury wise, Bowyer will be without George Lapslie – who has a hamstring problem. Jason Pearce also has a hamstring problem but should be alright for Saturday.

Bowyer also revealed that Lewis Page -like Lyle Taylor – will be a long term absentee again.

“George Lapslie hurt his hamstring on Tuesday so he’s going to be out for a couple of weeks. Jason Pearce has got a little bit of tightness, but he’ll be okay, he won’t train today but he’ll be OK for Saturday. Apart from that everyone else is OK.

“Lyle (Taylor) is going to be out for a while. I don’t know how long. He’s got to wear that brace now for a few weeks and we’ll know more once he come out of it about how he’ll be… he’s got to rest.

“Lewis Page is now in a boot for his Achilles, so we don’t know when he’s going to be back.”

Bowyer is still smarting over last week’s loss to Birmingham, particularly as it was at home.

He was also unhappy about ‎the defending in the build up to the goal.

“I want to win every game. The way we lost disappointed me and where we lost disappointed me. ‎

“I didn’t want to lose at home. I wanted to keep that run going for another season. We knew it was going to be tough, every game is tough, but I thought we created enough chances not to lose the game. On another day we probably would have won that game. 

“To lose it was disappointing, especially the way in which it happened – their right-back received it in his own half and ran past three of our players that never happens. It was too easy. 

“That’s the disappointment I had from the game; the way that they scored. 

“I thought it was a good test for our back four, they put a lot of balls into the box and they’ve got good players up top, 

“I think their striker is very good and I thought that we looked after him well at the back, so to concede in the way we did… we haven’t conceded a goal like that in a very long time.”

“I want to win every game that’s the way we are and that’s the way I am. I’m going to put a team out there to win every game. 

“Some games it’s not going to happen, like last Saturday. I put a team out which I thought was good enough to win the game and I thought on the day we could have won the game but we didn’t. That’s the league and you’re not going to win every time.”The best thing for us to do is go into every game and try to win it, and if we do lose it wont be through lack of trying or lack of effort.”