We have a bizarre fixture calendar and swine flu to thank for this game. We found ourselves with an empty week between the League Cup and our first SPL game, while Wigan had a friendly against a Spanish side postponed thanks to the latest epidemic sweeping the nation. Plenty of Saints fans are expected to travel south for this, our only proper friendly outside Scotland this year, and there should be a good atmosphere at the DW Stadium.
Billy Mehmet will be using this game as a chance to impress any scouts who pop along. The striker's five goals against East Stirling last week seem to have raised interest in him, although the media stories look like the sort of thing a calculating agent would plant. Nonetheless, if any English club's are interested in him they'll almost certainly take this opportunity to see him up against top class opposition. The same goes for the clubs after Andy Dorman - although it's all gone quiet on that front recently.
Manager Gus MacPherson is planning to take a party of 17 players south for this game, with the injury Chris Smith and Hugh Murray missing out along with Steven Thomson, whose wife is expecting a baby. All the players that are being taken are expected to play, meaning new signing Chris Innes will get his first run out in defence. It'll be interesting to see how the team starts - it could be similar to that which faced the 'Shire, or all those who didn't start could be given a run out from the off.
Wigan have been on the up in recent years after a couple of seasons fighting relegation. They improved under Steve Bruce before he departed for Sunderland and managed to acquire a number of talented players from less fashionable parts of the globe. Bruce has been replaced by Robert Martinez, a former Latics player who has had great success at Swansea in the last few years while playing some lovely football. During that time he had the services of former St. Johnstone striker Jason Scotland, who has now joined him at the DW Stadium. So too has Hamilton's James McCarthy, meaning we can probably be treated to made up stories from desperate Irish journalists about how we gave him racist abuse after this game, when we did nothing of the sort.
Anyway, this should be a good one - and Wigan are so important we'll even get to see the goals (which will probably be against us) on Sky Sports News!