Skipper to reach 100-game landmark against Hull City on Monday

Wigan Athletic captain Mario Melchiot prepares to make his 100^th appearance for the club on Monday when Latics welcome Hull City to the DW Stadium for the final home game of the season.

The skipper has had yet another influential campaign, integral to some of the finest results in the club's history and, speaking to us in the build-up to the game, he is delighted to have reached the milestone achieving a number of personal targets along the way;

"It means a lot to me to reach this point, because the big reason I came to Wigan Athletic was to play football games," said Melchiot.

"I had a lot of targets I set myself when I arrived; I wanted to help Wigan stay in the Premier League and move onto another level.

"For me to reach 100 games I'm happy that I've reached the first target, and also that I've been looking after myself well enough to play as many games as I have."

The skipper looked back on a rollercoaster season, believing that the lessons learnt from the past nine months will make Wigan Athletic stronger in the long-run;

He said; "For some people it's been an exciting season coming to watch us and going away with some special memories.

"There have been some disappointments along the way, and at times it's been a tough season but you can see we've learned a lot from this experience.

"We set our targets above just surviving and so in many ways there is a feeling that we haven't fully achieved what we set out to, but the important thing that we will be playing Premier League football next season which will allow us to keep aiming high.

"If you take all the positives from this season and try to balance them up and find consistency in producing them, it will help us a great deal in the future."

"One lesson we will take from this season is the realisation that in this league anyone can beat anyone, and that situation is becoming more and more common.

"When you look back over previous seasons, teams below tenth-spot we're generally beaten by the top-four teams. But now it's becoming harder for the big-boys because they know their opponents will always turn-up against them and put up a fight, just like we did."

The true significance of Latics' recent win over Arsenal was only realised after last weekend when the club was guaranteed Premier League football for a sixth consecutive season, an achievement that the skipper believes will help the team approach the remaining two games with plenty of confidence;

"We'll be able to approach the final two games with some of the pressure taken of us, and I think if you were looking at those games two or three months ago the feeling was that we would need points from those games.

"Now that we're safe we can go back to the feelings we had at the beginning of the season when everyone was excited and had the pressure taken off a little. "

Tickets are still on sale for Monday afternoon's game, with Latics expecting already expecting a large crowd for the final home game of the season.

During the stadium's 10^th anniversary season Wigan Athletic has experienced some phenomenal results which could not have been possible without the electrifying atmospheres you the fans have generated.

The players will take part in a lap of honour after the game as a way of saying thank you for the support you've given, so come and get behind the boys for one last time this season on Monday!