James McClean hails Wigan Athetic's 'patient' mindset

Latics had to bide their time before putting away League One's bottom club on a frustrating night at the DW.

But once Callum Lang headed home McClean's cross on 57 minutes, all the nerves suddenly went out of the window.

McClean himself added number two with eight minutes to go, and the Ireland international says Latics are in great shape heading into Friday's shoot-out at league leaders Rotherham.

“Every game now is just about winning," he said. “In the first half, we had so many chances and didn’t put the ball in the back of the net.

“We need to be a bit more ruthless in that sense but in the second half, we came out and didn’t get frustrated.

“We got the goal and kept plugging away.

“We stuck with the game plan and got the second goal, and it was a good win.

“We just need to keep winning games now.

“We’ve been very professional all season in our approach to every game and we’re getting the rewards for that.

“We didn’t panic, stuck with the game plan and we got our just rewards.”

McClean's goal, off Stephen Humphrys' intelligent flick, took a nick off a defender on the way in.

But the 32-year-old was in no mood to be handing it over as an own goal.

“Of course it’s mine!" he laughed. “I haven’t scored since before Christmas so it was great to score in a new position at left-back.

“A goal and an assist, I’m quite happy with that and to help contribute to three points, it’s a good night’s work.”

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