Boss Paul Jewell was playing down the pressure element, after all it's the Latics who boast a five point cushion over the drop zone.
Jewell said: "This is a massive game. If we win we go eight points clear of West Ham and Charlton, and 10 ahead of Watford. I'd never say it was a must-win game, you just increase the pressure on the players and yourself.
"But it's an important one, and we are really looking forward to it. There is a lot of football left yet and unfortunately I do think it will go right down to the wire.
"In the last three games, though, we have shown a big improvement in form. If we continue along those lines, we will move up the table. I feel we have turned the corner. We played well in the first 40 minutes at Reading three weeks ago, then beat Portsmouth, and we were unfortunate at Arsenal.
"We had a couple of days featuring on the back pages after the events at Arsenal, but since then have got on with the job of trying to get a result tonight.
"We've had eight or nine good days of training and the players have shown a great appetite to stay in this league. Yesterday we had 19 outfield players in full training which is encouraging - we haven't had that many for a few weeks."
While Jewell also confirmed that striker Henri Camara is back into the squad for the fixture: "Henri has been training for more than a week and he will be in the squad."
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