Wigan Athletic are resurfacing the DW Stadium pitch in time to be ready to play the Latics on Saturday. As Athletic, Wigan's pitch has suffered after a record-breaking winter in terms of rainfall. Unlike the Latics, Wigan share their ground with the rugby team, Wigan Warriors, which does not help to maintain a good playing surface.
Wigan Athletic Chief Executive, Jonathan Jackson, said, “We have had unprecedented weather conditions this winter and the pitch has suffered as a result. We had to act quickly to give Gary Caldwell and the players the best possible surface to play on for the remainder of the season. Ideally, Head Groundsman Ian Forshaw and our sports turf consultants would need more time than a week to prepare a new playing surface, but they will be working through the night this week to get the pitch ready for Saturday."
"The pitch has deteriorated significantly since November but we were anticipating that it would be robust enough to last until the end of the season. A number of other Premier League and Football League clubs have also relayed new pitches in the past month and so this is not a unique situation. There have been a number of issues that have contributed to the playing surface becoming unstable and suffering from significant grass loss. Further significant work is planned at the end of the football season to improve the playing surface for next season.”