Preview: Wigan Athletic vs Bromley

With Wigan Athletic bottom of League One and just as beleaguered as Bromley, this feels like a match neither side can afford to lose.

Both come into the fixture on the back of four defeats in their last five games, and both will have circled this as a winnable game that might change the course of their season.

For Wigan, a lot of their problems stem from their inability to create and score goals.

In their last five games, they have only created five big chances. It goes a long way to explaining why they’ve only scored eight goals this season, the worst record in League One. 

However, they may be buoyed by the fact that Bromley have conceded a whopping 30 goals in 12 games (avg. 2.5 per game), by far the worst record in the Football League, never mind League One.

To put it another way, this Saturday, the league’s most goal-shy side faces the team with the most porous defence.

The immovable object vs the unstoppable force it most certainly is not. 

The boys at NTT20 Podcast recently pointed out that the Latics have missed 83% of the few Opta-defined big chances they have created, against a league average of 63%. 

It hardly breeds confidence going into this fixture, particularly as they seem to be becoming weaker defensively, with more individual errors seeping into their game.

Wigan and Bromley have so few touches in the opposition box that it’s hard to know how either side will score on the day, especially as Bromley are yet to score from open play.

Rather than a goal-fest, this points to the game being decided by a set piece. And given 8 of Bromley’s 11 goals have come from set pieces, the script practically writes itself.

On current form, both sides are sleepwalking towards relegation, and on the face of it, the January transfer window can’t come soon enough. Though, Wigan fans might say that if they can start converting chances, all will be well. 

Perhaps, therefore, this game boils down to which of the two sides are in the deeper psychological hole. 

Do Wigan owe someone a beating, and is that side going to be Bromley?

Off the field, they aren’t being helped by an absentee owner and having no chief executive, but how much cover does that provide for a young first team struggling to get points on the board?

In the last two games, Latics manager Gary Caldwell has set up in a 5-3-2 or 3-5-2, but that might be due to the fact they were playing Huddersfield Town and Leicester City away in consecutive games.

Against Bromley, they may well revert to their more often seen 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 shape.

Byron Webster started his reign as Bromley’s interim manager with a 3-5-2 formation against Peterborough United, and he stuck with it for the trip to MK Dons.

It can be argued that Bromley competed for all of the Peterborough fixture but wilted like a salted snail after 60 minutes at MK Dons.

There may be a knee-jerk instinct to change things for the visit to Wigan, but I would argue that unless Webster has a left back he can rely on, he will have to stick with 3-5-2.

Just because Bromley looked like they wouldn’t score from open play against MK Dons doesn’t mean they should avoid going with two up front vs Wigan.

If there is any team to be got at, it’s Wigan. Though, the Latics will be saying the exact same thing about Bromley.

Guessing a Bromley line-up these days is like Russian roulette. With no idea who is fit from week to week, you cannot rely on any consistency. 

The bigger questions about Bromley going into this fixture relate to off-field concerns.

There are strong rumours that the Ravens’ promised investors are a Nigerian-backed consortium named Shoreline Sports Limited (SSL), which has Victor Anichibie as its frontman. SSL are part of the Shoreline Group, owned by billionaire Kola Karim. 

Given the weight of these rumours, fans are quite rightly asking for some transparency, especially in light of the fallout from the consortium’s aborted takeover of Gateshead. 

A recent press release from Flacks Group, Gateshead’s potential new suitors, states that SSL signed on the dotted line at Gateshead in July 2025, which makes them the current owners (although they’re currently fighting in court for an annulment). Flacks Group are alleging that SSL’s ongoing ownership is about to scupper their proposed takeover.

The press release may amount to corporate manoeuvring, but given the regulations around multi-club ownership, there are questions to be answered about Shoreline’s involvement with Bromley. And when no one controls the narrative of a story, fans will fill it with their own nervous thoughts and theories.

All of it points to a period of uncertainty on and off the pitch for the Ravens, but one of the best ways to dampen the noise off the pitch is to win on it.

Will the real Bromley FC please stand up?

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