Paul Cook insists keeping Wigan's Championship status is bigger achievement than winning League Two title with Portsmouth

That’s despite guiding the Blues to an unbelievable final day of the season League Two triumph back in 2017.

Pompey lifted the title that day thanks to an unforgettable 6-1 thumping of Cheltenham at Fratton Park.

It allowed them to win the league on goal difference from second-placed Plymouth – something that seemed utterly impossible following a 3-0 defeat at Stevenage just 49 days earlier.

Indeed, following that loss at Broadhall Way, Cook & Co sat 13 points off leaders Doncaster Rovers with just eight games of the season remaining.

Yet speaking ahead of Wigan’s Championship visit of Millwall on Saturday, Cook said keeping the Latics in the division for a third straight season would trump his Blues achievement.

The DW Stadium side currently sit third from bottom in the table and three points from safety with 13 games remaining.

Cook, who also guided Wigan to the 2017-18 League One title and Chesterfield to the 2013-14 League Two crown, told Wigan Today: ‘I look back at my career, and I have had success.

‘But my biggest success to date would be to keep Wigan Athletic up this year.

‘That would mean we’d have stayed up in this division for three years, and that’s not happened for a number of years.

‘I’ve been lucky enough to win promotion and titles with Portsmouth and Wigan and Chesterfield.

‘But I believe staying up this year would represent the biggest success of the lot.

‘That would mean going into a third year in the Championship as a manager, and not many managers last three years at this level!

‘And by the way, I might not even see this season out, and that’s football, and I’m okay with the rules.

‘But this is the biggest challenge I’ve had in my career, by far.’