Wigan Athletic boss Shaun Maloney unsure how Cobblers will approach League One fixture

Wigan Athletic manager Shaun Maloney is preparing for all scenarios after admitting he is not quite sure how Northampton will approach tomorrow’s Sky Bet League One fixture at the DW Stadium.

The Latics began life back in League One with an impressive 2-1 victory away at pre-season title favourites Derby County last weekend to move to minus five points after they were deducted eight points for breaching EFL regulations. However, Wigan were then knocked out of the Carabao Cup by League Two Wrexham on penalties in midweek,

"We didn’t do enough to win the game against Wrexham and we weren’t creative and aggressive enough with the amount of control we had,” said Maloney. “But that’s just the way it goes sometimes and now the big one is this weekend.

"The mentality has to change immediately and even though I want us to play a certain way, we still have to be difficult to create things against and difficult to beat and that’ll be the message going into tomorrow.”

Wigan, who have no fresh injury concerns going into Saturday’s game, have looked to play out from the back wherever possible in their opening two games this season, which may prompt Cobblers boss Jon Brady to go with a high press.

"I’ve watched them a couple of times and they’ve done both things,” Maloney added. “I watched them against MK Dons in pre-season and then against Swansea in the week where they were aggressive and went to press high up so we have to prepare for both scenarios.

"I thought Wrexham would be more aggressive than they were but I’ll prepare for both. We have to play under pressure when a team comes to high press us and what we found out against Wrexham is that when a team doesn’t press us, we still have to be patient and then there needs to be change of speed and mentality in the final third. These are the things we need to work on.

"It’s another big challenge and the mentality has to be right. I know the fans will really back us this weekend so it’s up to us to give them a performance to match it.”