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We caught up with Andy to gauge his relief after taking his tally to nine goals for the season.
Q: Andy, was that your first hat-trick for Wigan?
A: It was my first one ever. I have scored a couple in reserve games at Barnsley but that was my first at senior level and it was nice to get the matchball at the end but the main thing was to beat Brighton because they are a good team. Thankfully we did that and anything else was a bonus.
Q: And wasn't that your first Latics penalty?
A: Yeah. Lee Ashcroft is the normal penalty taker but he was injured and Tony Dinning wanted to take it. But I just felt I would score. Ged Brannan said ‘Let him score it because he's already scored one' and I just put it the right way. If the ‘keeper had guessed right, he would have saved it.
Q: You must have been delighted to get back on the scoresheet, though?
A: Yeah, I had missed a couple of sitters the week before and everyone started saying I couldn't score goals. But I didn't get too depressed and I knew the goals would come.
Q: Does it not upset you when people start criticizing your game?
A: What other people say about me doesn't bother me. It never has done because I'm a positive person. Missing chances is part of being a striker. If you have mental strength, you can cope with it.
The week before Brighton, I thought I had played well but just missed a few chances. That's football. If I scored every chance I had, I wouldn't be playing in Division Two. I would be playing in the Premiership!
Q: It must be nice to be finally getting a settled run in the first team after a difficult start to the campaign?
A: Yeah, I got injured earlier in the season and that depressed me because I had trained harder than ever in pre-season. But things are looking up now and we've got plenty of other players who can score goals.
We are a big team who can score from set pieces and other teams know now that we will give them a hard game. They know we are coming strong now and we haven't lost for quite a few games.
Q: What's the most goals you've ever scored in a season. Are you getting close to a personal best yet?
A: I scored 13 for Barnsley but that was an injured season as well. I think I scored 13 from around 30 matches. That's still not great but that's the most I've ever scored and I'm aiming to beat that this year. If I can stay healthy, I should beat that.
But the most important thing for me is to help Wigan climb the table. I know we are only nine points away from the play-offs but we aren't far off the relegation zone either so that's what we have to concentrate on.
Q: The Brighton game was a prime example of how Wigan have performed better against the bigger sides. Can you explain why that happens?
A: We do seem to have been more mentally up for games against the top sides and you could see that in the Stoke, Bristol City and Brighton games but that shouldn't be so. I can't think of any reasons why but we should be professional and raise our game for whoever we are playing against.
Q: Lee McCulloch seems to have been a great help to your game recently?
A: Yeah, Lee set up all three goals for me. I actually felt sorry for him because I have been in that situation before, when you're setting up goals for other people and not getting one for yourself. It's easy to take it the wrong way and think nothing's going for you but Lee just carried on playing well and was really unlucky not to score.
It's good to know, though, that we've got plenty of other centre forwards who can score in Lee, Neil Roberts and Simon Haworth. We are so lucky to have all of them in our side and I don't think there's a club in this division who have as strong a group of centre forwards as we have.
Q: The form of Gary Teale must also be a boost to any striker.
A: Yeah, he's a good player. He's really fast! I'd like to see a foot race between him and Paul Dalglish – that would be something!
He looked a really good player when we played against him at Ayr and he's done a great job for us since coming here. If he keeps getting the quality balls into the box like he has been doing, then I'm sure we will win more games.