Inside track from Wigan Athletic administrator on next step

Latics took another huge stride towards securing Championship safety in midweek thanks to an 8-0 thrashing of Hull City at the DW.

It means Latics are out of the bottom three on goal difference – even with the 12-point deduction for being placed into administration applied – with two games to go.

Hopes are also high off the field regarding the sale of the club, ahead of the deadline for initial enquiries in the middle of next week.

“I don’t see any reason why this won’t end well,” reported administrator Paul Stanley.

“What Tuesday night showed – and it’s really important in these situations – is the spirit at the club.

“Throughout the whole club, there’s smiling faces, everybody’s friendly, everybody’s positive.

“We’ve come in on a very unusual basis, with no real background meetings with directors, etc.

“And we’ve been welcomed in by the board of directors with open arms.

“They were absolutely stunned that administrators had been appointed, purely because the owners had decided not to put in any more money.

"The board of directors have remained and are working for nothing, and the rest of the staff have remained positive.

“It’s not just the playing side you’ve got to look at, there’s a whole family of people who work for the club every day.

“And if you look at the way the dressing room responded on Tuesday night, there is clearly a massive togetherness at the club.

“The manager has managed to keep all of the players on board, and hasn’t got harangued by agents trying to cause trouble, which is what I thought would have happened.

“All of the people I’ve spoken to – players and management – are solely focused on the job in hand, which is getting through to the end of the season, with enough points to stay up.

“We’re now out of the bottom three (even with the 12-point deduction, which has been appealed with the EFL), and we just need to find a buyer now.”

Stanley and his colleagues have been delighted with the initial level of interest in taking over control of the club.

And he says the positive state of the business as a going concern – and the lack of a ‘smell of decay’ usually associated with businesses in trouble – make it an attractive proposition for potential buyers.

“The level of interest has been very high,” he added on talkSPORT.

“There’s been more than 50 people who’ve come in, and five or six who’ve shown they have got the initial funds (£10million in a UK bank account).

“That means they’ve been given access to the data room, which gives them all the information they need to work out if they think it’s something they want to invest in.

"And it’s important the message gets out there that this is a very viable business we have here.

“It’s a football club that is in a good place. There isn’t a smell of decay around the place that you get in most administrations.

“This is a business that was going in the right direction before the unfortunate events that have just happened.”