Wigan Athletic guest column - Gary Roberts

Coming off the back of the draw against Scunthorpe last weekend, that makes it four points from a possible six – and

it puts the pressure back on Blackburn and Shrewsbury at the top of the League One table.

We’ve had some tricky games of late, playing teams in and around the top six.

And we still feel we’re in a good place, a good position, in the league.

We know what we have to do, it’s in our own hands, and we’re not beating ourselves up if we don’t win every game.

On a personal note, it was nice to get off the mark against Scunthorpe, especially with it being such an important goal.

It’s been a long time coming – my first goal for Wigan – and I’m pleased that’s out of the way now.

You see the pictures of all the club’s goalscorers at the training ground – even the gaffer’s up there – and now I’m on it too!

When you go on as a sub, you just want to affect the game, however long you’re on the pitch.

Thankfully I managed to do that, and help us to pick up another important point.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been promoted several times in my career – including two in the last four years under the gaffer (at Chesterfield and Portsmouth) – and every time it’s been completely different.

There’s no blueprint of what to do, and that will guarantee it’ll happen, because nothing is ever the same.

All you can say is we’ve got a very squad here, and you’d like to think we’ll get over the line. But it’s never as easy as that.

The teams ahead of us are not letting up, and they’ve every right to fancy their chances.

It’s obviously exciting for the neutrals to have three teams fighting for two automatic promotion spots. And we’re confident we’ve got enough to finish the job.

Next up for us is the FA Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Sunday.

And everyone in the squad will be putting their hand up to play in that one, you can be sure of that!

We’re getting to the business end of the season now, but I feel great, I feel absolutely

fantastic, I feel fit.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in every game of the cup run so far.

Ha, it’s been nice for the manager to put me in the team against all the good teams, and we’re chasing the ball for an hour, like against Manchester City in the last round!

But seriously, to play in those big games is special, it really is.

I work hard in training every day and I want to play every game.

I don’t know why I’m still going strong at my age – I think it’s jumping out of tackles and not getting injured that’s helped me!

I’ve been called a coward from fans all my career for not getting stuck in to tackles, but I’m still here!

I’m up to around 60-0 games now, so I must be doing something right.

There’s plenty of players who play in my position who are doing well, and I’m just trying to do my bit.

It’s such a strong squad, and we’re going to need everyone because of all the games, and a lot of travelling, coming up.

Gary Roberts was speaking to Paul Kendrick