Oldham Athletic have struggled in their past few games, so far failing to pick up a single point in the league and being underwhelming in their pre-season fixtures. At his pre-match press conference, Laurent Banide did not gloss over this fact, stating that "we are in a difficult situation, so It's too easy to play against us for the moment".
Wheater injury doubt
In their 2-1 loss against Crewe Alexandra at the weekend, Oldham's defence were at fault for too many of their issues, with a centre-back partnership of Sonny Sefil and Jamie Stott often struggling. The Latics announced the signing of David Wheater at the start of the month, prior to the match against Forest Green Rovers - to the delight of many fans.
The experienced footballing veteran was only able to pick up one appearance for the Latics, before picking up an injury in training during this week. The centre-back is out with a tear to a muscle in his thigh, but manager Banide noted that he should only be out for one-to-two weeks, although there is a possibility that it may be longer.
Wheater will miss the game against Blackburn, and most likely will be out for Saturday's match against Bradford City. Latics' fans will hope to get him back into the side as fast as possible, to aid the side in an attempt to try and pick up some points.
Finding a solution
The club's head coach has also said that this game is to try and 'find a solution' to the issues on the pitch. Before that, he talked about the difficulty of playing the sheer number of games the club is now - already having played in three different competitions. The number of matches means that the club does not get as much time to train and for those changes to sync as Banide will want.
It will be the Latics' first time back at Ewood Park since their 2-2 draw in the same season in which the club were relegated to League Two. On that day, over 2,200 fans travelled to see Richie Wellens' men and created an immense atmosphere in a game which they so nearly won. It will be an extremely different affair this time around, with Oldham not managing to escape the first round of the League Cup for many years.
Mowbray to give squad players a game
Blackburn are not likely to field a team near to their full strength - and even the manager has admitted so. So far, Rovers have also failed to pick up points, losing to Charlton Athletic and Fulham in their opening two fixtures.
Manager Mowbray has already said that 'Tuesday night is an opportunity to show me that they should be starting league games'. New signing Greg Cunningham may also be able to earn his first start in a Blackburn shirt, having signed on loan from Cardiff City on transfer deadline day. The likes of Ben Brereton and Danny Graham may also be able to make their first appearances.
Both sides will be wanting to progress in the competition, even if on paper it looks a lot more likely that Blackburn are to be the victors on the night.