Aston Villa at Wigan: Live updates, team news, banter and a must win game

It isn't must win in the sense that if we don't win it is the end of the world or we won't be able to feed the family, but it really is must win if we are to keep any aspirations of finishing in the top four alive. Sure, some will say it isn't, but even if we do win tonight, we will still be in seventh, a point off Manchester City having played the same amount of games.

The bonus to that is I failed to mention that Manchester City also have a game in hand on Spurs in fourth place and two games in hand on Liverpool in fifth place, so all things considered, if we were to play all three games tonight and win them all, we would be three points ahead of Spurs in fourth place, having played one more than them.

So, it isn't really must win, but it really is, if you get my meaning. Basically, we can't rely on other teams dropping points because we do.

The players

No solid team news yet but Martin O'Neill has indicated that he might have to make change.

Martin O'Neill But the main point over the next few weeks, with games coming thick and fast, and a semi-final to prepare for, is I will be very surprised indeed if we don't have to make a number of changes in the team.

I don't think Martin O'Neill isn't going to use his squad but that does sound like a manager who will only make changes if he is forced to make changes through suspension or injury. I hope I am wrong and I hope I am just reading too much into something that manager has said and I probably am - he has already used more players this season than last.

But, I do think we will see Gabby back tonight. He was ill for the Reading match which forced the manager to play Carew and Heskey and to some extent gave him a good reason to try them against Stoke, but after that result, I don't think any of us would be surprised to see either Heskey or Carew rested for tonight and while the thinkers would say it will be Carew on the bench, I quite fancy Heskey to make way for Gabby, only because Carew seems to be the player, out of the two, in form at the moment.

Updates and Banter

So, with just a few hours to go, we will update this page as and when we get team news or something new and during the match we will update here as well as our Twitter page - which can be reached by clicking that icon to the right.

Until then - feel the force.