McCarthy sends Wigan rallying call

James McCarthy has demanded Wigan treat their 11 remaining Premier League fixtures as cup finals to secure their top-flight safety.

Wigan sit just outside the bottom three, equal on points with 18th-placed Aston Villa, and secured a morale-boosting 3-0 win over fellow strugglers Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

The three points lifted Wigan out of the relegation zone, and McCarthy is hoping that they can build on the result.

"It's so important to get out of the bottom three and try and build on positive results like this one and we've got 11 games left to make sure we do that," the Wigan midfielder told the club's official website.

"They're 11 cup finals and we want to try and get as high as we can in the league but we won't be getting carried away now and we'll get straight back to work to make sure we follow this through.

"It's important to have got the three points, especially away against Reading, because it's a confidence boost.

"It keeps up momentum and they have been on a good run recently which is something we need to stop considering their league position and ours."