League One

Northampton vs Wigan: Five Losses vs a Team Finding Form

Northampton haven't won in five. Wigan have won two of their last three. The H2H data makes this even more interesting.

6 April 2026Northampton vs Wigan

Northampton have lost every single one of their last five matches. Not a slump — a collapse. Meanwhile, Wigan arrive at Sixfields on 6 April 2026 having won two of their last three, with a head-to-head record that strongly favours them. The Northampton vs Wigan fixture has a story to tell, and the data tells it loudly. Check out the full match statistics if you want the complete picture — but start here.

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Northampton Are in Freefall — and the xG Confirms It

Five games. Five defeats. Zero wins. That's the simplest version of Northampton's recent form, but the underlying numbers are grimmer still.

Northampton are averaging 0.8 xG per game across their last five matches. That's not a drought — that's a structural attacking problem. Nine shots per game sounds passable on paper. But only 2.6 of those are on target, meaning roughly 71% of their attempts are either blocked, wayward, or optimistic at best.

The Scoreline Breakdown

Look at how they've gone down:

L 0-1 vs AFC Wimbledon

L 0-2 vs Burton Albion

L 1-2 vs Stockport

L 1-4 vs Mansfield

L 0-1 vs Bradford

Three of the five defeats were by a single goal, which might suggest they're unlucky. The Mansfield result — a 1-4 home humiliation — says otherwise. That scoreline has a habit of revealing something true about a team.

Possession sits at 49.4% — so they're not being outplayed in terms of the ball. They're losing it in the wrong moments, in the wrong areas, and converting nothing when it matters. For more on Northampton's season-long metrics, the Northampton stats & profile breaks down where the rot set in.

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Wigan Are Moving in the Opposite Direction

Wigan's last five reads: W, D, W, L, D. That's seven points from a possible fifteen — but the sequencing matters more than the total.

The defeat, a 0-3 loss to Reading, came in the middle of the run. What came after it tells the real story: back-to-back wins against Exeter and Bradford, both by 2-0. Clean sheets in both. That's a team that absorbed a hammering and responded with back-to-back shutouts.

Counter-Attacking Without the Ball

Wigan are doing this with only 42.2% average possession — the lowest of the two sides by a significant margin. They're not trying to dominate the ball. They're pressing at the right moments, sitting off when needed, and being clinical in transition.

9.6 shots per game with 2.4 on target. The shot volume is marginally higher than Northampton's, but the xG (0.9 per game) edges ahead too. Small margins — but in League One, small margins separate mid-table from the bottom six.

For a deeper look at how Wigan have constructed this recent upturn, the Wigan stats & profile has the full breakdown.

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The Head-to-Head Has a Clear Pattern — and It's Not Subtle

Five meetings between these clubs. Wigan have won three, drawn two, and lost none. Northampton have not beaten Wigan in this fixture across the last five attempts.

Here's the full H2H sequence:

1. Wigan 2-1 Northampton (Aug 2023)

2. Northampton 1-1 Wigan (Jan 2024)

3. Wigan 2-1 Northampton (Nov 2024)

4. Northampton 1-1 Wigan (May 2025)

5. Wigan 3-1 Northampton (Aug 2025)

Two things stand out immediately.

First: both teams have scored in all five meetings. Every single one. That's a genuine trend, not noise — five matches is enough of a sample to take seriously in a fixture-specific context. The most recent meeting ended 3-1 to Wigan, which means even in games Northampton lose, they tend to find a way onto the scoresheet.

Second: total corners across those five H2H meetings have consistently cleared 9. The AI-detected trends on today's AI-powered analysis flag this as a strong statistical pattern — five consecutive meetings with 9 or more corners. When you factor in that Northampton have had 5+ corners in each of their last 8 home matches, the corner volume in this fixture makes sense structurally.

H2H context doesn't always travel — but when the stats from both the head-to-head record and the individual team form point the same way, it's worth paying attention.

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Set Pieces, Corners, and Why Sixfields Skews the Data

Northampton's 8-match home streak of 5+ corners is one of the more durable trends in this dataset. Home teams in League One generally generate more corners than away sides — but eight consecutive matches above that threshold at the same venue is specific enough to be meaningful.

What's Driving the Corner Volume?

A few factors combine here:

Northampton average 5.0 corners per game across their last five — but that includes away fixtures. Home matches push this higher.

12.0 fouls per game from Northampton means they concede set pieces regularly too, which means the game lives in transition and restarts.

Wigan's defensive shape — compact, low block when out of possession — tends to force play wide, which generates crossing situations, which generates corners.

Wigan concede 10.4 fouls per game, slightly lower than Northampton, suggesting they're disciplined enough defensively to avoid giving away free kicks in dangerous areas. But in transition, that discipline occasionally cracks — which is when corners come.

The combination of Northampton's home corner record and the H2H corner trend creates a layered argument for a high-corner-volume match. Whether that translates into goals is a separate question.

The Offside Numbers

Both teams run relatively low offside counts — 1.2 per game for Northampton, 1.0 for Wigan. Neither side is attempting to play a high defensive line or running the channels aggressively into tight spaces. This is a ground-level, second-ball, League One fixture. Exactly the kind of match where set pieces decide things.

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Wigan Away: Why the Trend Away from Home Holds Up

Wigan have seen 2 or more total goals in each of their last 8 away matches. That's a streak that cuts across opponents, venues, and form cycles — eight games is long enough to constitute a genuine behavioural pattern.

It doesn't mean Wigan are conceding freely on the road. The Bradford win — 2-0 away — was a clean sheet. The Exeter win was another 2-0. But even in matches where Wigan have been under pressure away from home, goals have arrived at the other end too.

Why? A few reasons:

With only 42.2% possession, Wigan don't try to kill games through control. That means space exists on both sides.

9.6 shots per game away from home — they remain a threat even when sitting off.

Low yellow card rate (1.6 per game, same as Northampton) means they're not disrupting the game with cynical fouls — matches flow.

Northampton are in desperate form, but they're not a team that stops creating entirely. Their 49.4% possession and 9.0 shots per game suggest a side that has the ball often enough to manufacture chances — they just can't convert them. Against a Wigan side that leaves space in behind during transitions, there may be moments.

The H2H record backs this up. Northampton have scored in four of the last five meetings between these sides. Their attacking output isn't zero — it's just not enough.

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The Numbers That Matter Most

Northampton's xG of 0.8 per game is the lowest of both sides — but they're generating 9.0 shots per match. That disconnect between volume and quality is the core of their problem. They're not unlucky; they're imprecise.

Both teams have scored in all five H2H meetings — a trend that predates Northampton's current five-game losing run. Even when Northampton are struggling, they find a way to get on the scoresheet against this specific opponent.

Wigan have won their last two away matches 2-0 — back-to-back clean sheets on the road after a 0-3 defeat. The response to adversity is the most meaningful form data in this dataset.

Northampton's home corner streak stands at 8 matches of 5 or more, and the H2H record shows 9+ total corners in each of the last five meetings between these clubs. Two independent datasets pointing at the same outcome in the same fixture.

Wigan's 8-match away streak of 2+ total goals has survived opponents of varying quality. Northampton, even in freefall, generate enough to suggest that streak continues — but the direction of those goals increasingly favours Wigan, who have won three of the last five H2H meetings without ever losing one.

View Full Match Stats Today's Smart Analysis