By Neil Gunner
January 5 2007

Wigan travel to portsmouth for their third round FA Cup tie tomorrow(Saturday). Portsmouth are in sparkling form at the moment climbing up to sixth place in the premiership. On the other hand wigan are struggling to grind out results both home and away. Wigan's new signing Andreas Granqvist looks likely to start as Arjan de Zeeuw is suffering with an ongoing toe problem, while other new signing Kristofer Haestad is also in the squad.

Skoko, Scharner and Henri camara are all out through injury, although Lee Mculloch is back after his three game suspension.

Portsmouth look set to rest Sol Campbell for the cup tie, with And Griffin and Richard Duffy look likely starters after their loan spells.

Probable teams :

Portsmouth (from): James, Johnson, Primus, Campbell, O'Brien, Taylor, O'Neil, Thompson, Mendes, Davis, Kranjcar, Mwaruwari, Cole, Kanu, Koroman, Duffy, Hughes, Todorov, Griffin, Ashdown.

Wigan (from): Kirkland, Jackson, Hall, Kilbane, Cywka, Johansson, Landzaat, Heskey, Boyce, Cotterill, Baines, Wright, McCulloch, Teale, Granqvist, Haestad, Pollitt.

Wigan, as are all teams busy at the moment with the January transfer window open with three new signings already underway, the latest being defender David Unsworth from Sheffield United.

Wigan look set to improve the record against Portsmouth with the latics only winning two of thirteen encounters between the teams.

A third round win could be just what Wigan need after a tricky spell of late.