LIAM Feeney and Adam Le Fondre are racing to prove their fitness ahead of this weekend’s crunch derby with Wigan Athletic.

Feeney sat out Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat at Ipswich with an ankle problem while Le Fondre pulled out of the squad minutes before kick-off with a stomach virus.

Neil Lennon is keeping his fingers crossed that both will be available for the short trip to the DW Stadium, where he also hopes to bring back some of the players rested at Portman Road.

“Feeney rolled his ankle and we couldn’t take a chance, but we hope to have him back in,” he said. “It would have been three games in six days for Paddy McCarthy, so we brought him out. I thought Dorian Dervite did an excellent job coming in for him, by the way.

“Emile Heskey will be fresh, so will Adam Le Fondre, we hope. I wanted him on the bench at Ipswich but he didn’t feel strong enough to do that.”

Lennon admits he is “sick to death” of playing well away from home but picking up nothing.

Wanderers have now lost six away games on the spin but while performances have improved, Lennon is at a loss to explain his side’s propensity for conceding late goals.

“Middlesbrough away was a good performance, Blackburn away was a good performance, Ipswich away was a great performance and we’re still losing games,” he told The Bolton News.

“I said to them at half time (at Ipswich) don’t let me go out there and say ‘we played really well but we got nothing’ but that’s exactly what I’m doing.

“We’ll just have to stick at it and try to improve but there definitely seems to be an inbuilt thing at the moment away from home and I don’t know what it is.”

Le Fondre’s predatory instincts were sorely missed at Ipswich as Wanderers spurned a host of good chances to end their losing streak on the road.

Lennon admits his side will have to sharpen up on Saturday in a game Wigan seemingly have to win to maintain any chance of survival this season.

“There is not a lot more as a manager you can do when you see us spurn four gilt-edged chances,” he said. “We should have been home and hosed. I don't remember Ipswich causing us too many problems but we only have ourselves to blame.

“I can take some responsibility but that's the best we have played away from home, especially with chances created.

“It needs to improve, simple as that. You cannot miss that many chances and expect to get anything out of a game.”

Meanwhile the Football League have announced the fixture list for the 2015/16 campaign will be released on June 17.