City are in for a game as my old club Wigan are a team on the up
MY former club Wigan Athletic might not have enough to knock Manchester City out of the FA Cup tomorrow night, but I am sure they will give it a good go.
Wigan have had their fair share of turmoil since beating Manchester City in the FA Cup five years ago, suffering three relegations (to the Championship and twice to League One).
But Paul Cook has transformed the club since he took over and, after doing great jobs at Chesterfield and Portsmouth since leaving Sligo Rovers, they are very much in the League One promotion race this season.
Former Manchester United striker Nick Powell has been making a name for himself and they rate him highly, with a fee of £7 to £8million being mentioned. And I have seen him, he is that good.
Manchester City will take a good following to Wigan tomorrow and perhaps a slightly weakened team.
Pep Guardiola might be tempted to use the likes of young midfielder Phil Foden and left-back Olzsandr Zinchenko but I think they will still have too many quality footballers for Wigan to cope. There are bound to be goals though and Wigan, under Cook, play open expansive football and I think they will have a good go at City.
And today is a great opportunity for Rochdale’s Irish pair Joe Rafferty and Ryan Delaney, who come up against Spurs on the new pitch at Spotland.
Despite the sandpit his players have had to put up with this winter, Keith Hill actually likes to play good football so the tie has the potential to be a tricky one for Spurs. But like City, I expect the Premier League boys to go through.