Sunderland boss wary of 'motivated' Wigan Athletic

Latics have yet to win in three outings under new manager Kolo Toure.

That's left them second bottom of the Championship heading into the turn of the year, but Mowbray is reading nothing into Latcs' lowly league position.

“I think Wigan actually beat Blackburn at Wigan and were on a good run," he said.

“There are no easy games in this league. I appreciate you can look at the stats and say they haven’t won many games recently.

“They have been on a difficult run and just changed their manager recently, the manager hasn’t won a game yet.

“I see them as real motivating aspects of a football team. The manager will be driving his team and if he’s got the players onboard they will be desperate to do well for him.

“We have to be ready for a team full of adrenaline, full of desire and be professional to work really hard and try to see their threats off and bring our own quality.

“I think the most dangerous thing is thinking we have done well against a team sitting third in the league and now we are playing a team who have had some difficulties in recent weeks.

“The danger is falling into that trap of not bringing your ‘A-game’ and that’s what we’ll guard against and be ready for a tough test.

“This is a team that won the league last year. It’s a tough place to go and they can hit the heights.

"They can beat anybody on their day."