After a stunning away win at Leeds United at the weekend, Wigan Athletic manager Paul Cook said his side could enjoy their weekend and look ahead to entertaining the Lilywhites on Easter Monday.
After going down to ten men just a quarter of an hour into the game with Marcelo Bielsa’s promotion-chasers, the Latics then went behind, only to come back with a brace from Gavin Massey to stun the West Yorkshire outfit and make it a five point gap from the bottom three with just three games left.
Speaking to the media after the game, Cook feels his side have learnt a lot during the season and can guarantee their safety with a derby day win over North End.
“The lads are learning as we go, that's what football is about,” he said. “When you are playing in a division for the first time, like a lot of these guys are, when you learn you make mistakes and you get punished and that's the level we are at.
“[On Saturday] we had that many blocks and good headers, plus Christian Walton [the goalkeeper] was outstanding and everyone worked so hard.
“It was a perfect result for us and we can all enjoy our weekend and look forward to Preston at home, hopefully get a really good crowd in - I can see us cement what we all started off to do.”
Rotherham currently occupy the final relegation place, five points behind Wigan, with a much worse goal difference, and the Latics know that if they beat North End on Monday and Rotherham don’t beat Birmingham, they have retained their Championship status.
“There are three games to go and five points is a fantastic gap, but there is nothing done,” continued Cook.
“I can't speak highly enough of Rotherham, especially, and the other teams involved in it are what they are, but for Rotherham to contiually make that fight with everyone is so much credit to Paul [Warne] and the players.
“They will take that fight to the wire and we have to make sure we do the same.”