Melchiot buoyed by Pompey vwin

Prior to the victory Melchiot has his team-mates had dropped into the relegation zone. And with Tottenham, Newcastle, Bolton and Stoke all winning their weekend matches it was a much needed three points to avoid finishing the week rooted to the bottom.

After losing all of October's games, Wigan began November with victory and hope to use their home advantage in November to continue their rise up the table.

Home games against West Brom, Everton and Stoke - and a solitary away game at Newcastle - gives Wigan a great chance of building on their points tally.

Melchiot said: "When you keep losing games on the spin, and you feel you can't win, the confidence starts dipping, and it's important to win again. We just have to make sure we can push it forward.

"It's been really, really tough for us, and we needed a bit of luck to give us a little bit of confidence to get us where we want to be. The good thing now, especially with it being an away win, is the high level confidence it will give the team, which we needed, and it's a great feeling. "

For the full Mario Melchiot interview, pick-up a copy of the Observer this week.