The Latics pre-season trip to Ireland looks set to get the go ahead after a mystery donor agreed to donate £7,000 to help fund the trip. Before the donation manager Iain Dowie said, “We don’t have the money, but we don’t have enough players anyway. The out-of-contract lads couldn’t come with us, so I’d need to take virtually all of the youth team. Then again, those kids might be needed next season – they might find themselves playing league football because we don’t have enough pros. I can’t even sort out the lads we want full-time. The way things stand, we’ll be fighting against relegation instead of challenging for promotion.” Dowie is likely to use youngsters Marc Tierney (pictured), Danny Hall, Adam Griffin, Rob Walker, Carlos Roca, Danny Forde and Chris Grange on the trip.