The Latics have twice defeated Roy Keane's men 3-0 this season and arrive at the Stadium of Light for another survival six-pointer.

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Steve Bruce's side were comfortable victors when they came to Wearside in the FA Cup third round last month – a game that saw Nosworthy return from a two-month injury lay-off.

The Brixton centre-back was also in the Sunderland side that went down to an August loss at Wigan, so he's desperate for a revenge win that would take the Wearsiders three points clear of tomorrow's opponents.

Nosworthy said: "I think Wigan will be in for a tougher game than when they played us before this season.

"The last time in the FA Cup was a very flat performance from the boys and we apologise to our fans for that.

"I was just coming back from injury and hadn't got my match fitness, but that's no excuse. The game early in the season down there was one of our poorest Premier League performances.

"We haven't managed to score against them this season, but I know we can do a lot better and with our home for looking quite good, we're feeling confident.

"We'll look to play at a higher tempo and give them a lot more problems. I feel we can give a team a good beating and hopefully it will come sooner rather than later."

Sunderland fell to a ninth successive away loss with they went down 3-0 at Liverpool last weekend.

Keane's men have not managed an away victory this season, collecting only two points on the road.

"It's obviously not good enough and it's something we're striving to put right," said Nosworthy. "Most of our points are coming at home but I'm not sure that our away results necessarily put more pressure on home games.

"You are always expected to win your home games no matter where you are in the league and we know what's needed tomorrow against one of the sides around us in the league."

Nosworthy has again found himself sandwiched between two products of the Manchester United academy in the shape of on-loan Jonny Evans and £2million January capture Phil Bardsley.

He added: "You can see they've been brought up with one of the best clubs around. Everyone knows how good Jonny is because he was here last year but Phil has slotted straight in, too. He's a proper, good defender – fully committed, strong and aggressive. You know you can let him get on with his job and trust him."