Wigan confident of beating the freeze

Wigan officials are confident of avoiding a second postponement in six days after spending a five-figure sum in a bid to beat the big freeze.

Despite a perfectly-playable pitch, severe icy conditions around the DW Stadium that prompted fears for the safety of spectators forced Monday night's clash with Bolton to be called off.

The club are now determined to avoid a repeat for the Boxing Day home fixture with another of their local rivals, Blackburn. Chief executive Brenda Spencer told wiganlatics.co.uk: "Ultimately, we can't control the weather of course, but we are doing everything in our power to try and keep the game played on Saturday."

He added: "Our first priority has to be the safety of the supporters of both teams, and that is why we are gritting the area and ploughing the snow.

"At the moment the forecast seems quite favourable in that there could be a slight thaw before the weekend.

"But we cannot afford to leave anything to chance which is why we are trying to clear the stockpiles of snow now and spending a considerable sum of money to make this happen."

Spencer added: "At this stage we are very confident the game will be played."

The Latics have hired a JCB snow plough and bought seven tonnes of grit to spread across pathways and car parks, which are the most treacherous areas.