Wigan Athletic-Blackburn Rovers Preview

LONDON (SE) - Ewood Park plays host to the defining game in the relegation battle on Monday evening when Wigan Athletic visit Blackburn Rovers.

With the three other teams in the scrap all playing on Sunday, Blackburn and Wigan will both know what they have to do to avoid the drop or guarantee survival respectively, and Rovers manager Steve Kean is confident that his team will have enough.

"The players have worked really well this past week," said Kean. "There's been lots of good football, the ball has been hitting the back of the net from the strikers, everyone is looking really sharp.

"There's a positive edge, the players are looking bright, we've had high numbers in training and the quality of the lads play all week has been exceptional so I'm delighted with their response. So we are confident that we can get back to the way that we normally play which is attacking, good on the eye when we get on the ball in the opposition half and much better passing.

"In the last six games at Ewood we've scored ten goals and got ten points. Unfortunately out of those games we lost in the last minute against Liverpool and we lost in the last ten minutes against Manchester United having played very well.

"We know our situation, so the focus has to be to get up and get after teams like we did against Sunderland and Norwich where we were at them from the first minute and that is what we have to get back to, the players know that.

"It is very, very clear, there are no grey areas, there is one focus, we can't control what will happen before we play Wigan, I wish we were playing earlier and so do the players but we have to play on Monday."

Wigan are the in-form team in the Premier League and go into the match on the back of a 4-0 hammering of Newcastle last time out, but defender Gary Caldwell is disappointed that the Latics are still in the mix given their stunning recent form.

"It's obviously frustrating to still be near the bottom of the table when we know we can play as well as we did against Newcastle," said Caldwell. "It was the same last season and we managed to get out of it in the nick of time.

"For whatever reason we didn't get off to a particularly good start, and then we had that eight-game sequence before Christmas when nothing went right for us.

"Fair play to everyone at the club, though. We have all dug in and produced some absolutely big results against some top teams.

"We have to keep winning, though - and if we keep playing the way we have then we will continue to do that. We know we can finish it against Blackburn, and then hopefully enjoy the last game against Wolves here at the DW."

Blackburn have doubts over Bradley Orr (calf) and David Dunn (calf), while Grant Hanley (ankle), Michel Salgado (rib) and Vince Grella (thigh) are out. Wigan will hold late tests for Franco di Santo and Ronnie Stam.

Only relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers have lost more home games than Blackburn this season, while only Wolves and Bolton have conceded more goals on their own patch. Wigan manager Roberto Martinez was awarded Premier League Manager of the Month for April, and his Latics side have lost just two in nine - a run that includes wins over Newcastle, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool.