'˜This game is no bigger than others'

Latics travel to South Yorkshire to take on a Millers side who have picked up only 10 points from their opening 22 league games – and are already 12 points adrift of safety.

Anything other than three points would be seen as a serious missed opportunity for second-bottom Latics to close the gap on fourth-bottom Burton, which currently stands at four points. Kellett, though, is not reading too much into the hype from elsewhere.

“It’s a big game, but no it’s bigger than any other,” he told the Evening Post.

“We go into every game feeling we need to bring a good performance and win the game.

“This Rotherham game is obviously a clash of the bottom two, and everyone will be up for it – their players as well as ours. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing and we’ll be fine.

“It’s not ‘must-win’, because there’s still loads of games to go after this one.

“I know a lot of people are writing us off already, but we don’t listen to them.” Kellett recently made a welcome return after suffering serious knee ligament damage in pre-season.

His substitute appearance in the home defeat to Newcastle on December 14 was his first run-out in nine months, and he played the full game at the weekend as Latics were pipped 3-2 by Ipswich.

“The Ipswich game was the first time I’d played 90 minutes for Wigan in a year and a half,” revealed Kellett, who joined from Bolton in the summer of 2015.

“I could definitely feel it at the end, I just need minutes to get fitter and fitter.

“Rotherham is a big game, but personally I don’t feel any added pressure when I’m playing.”