I was lucky to have Graham Barrow as my assistant. His experience was so important to help guide me along. We had a strong relationship: trusted each other 100 per cent. He could say anything to me, I could say anything to him and we wouldn’t fall out. We’d have a real discussion and come to the right decision.

As a manager, having someone like that beside you is crucial.

When I took over, Wigan were eight points from safety with five games to go. To stay up, we probably needed to win four and draw one – minimum.

Given we hadn’t won a game at home since the beginning of the season, the odds were against us.

My first game was against Fulham on the Friday night, four days after my chat with the chairman. There wasn’t much time, but I decided to make big changes.

We were almost down, so I wanted to focus on how we were going to play in the future. Set our stall out and put things in motion for the following year.

“The message was clear: it’s happened. Now’s the time we come back. We’re rebuilding this football club”

In training that week, we did everything with the ball: playing out from the goalie, playing between the lines, controlling the ball. The players were really receptive to it.

We came away from Craven Cottage with a 2-2 draw. Our mental frailties cost us the win, but in terms of the way we played, I was really happy. So was the chairman.

We tried everything to stay up, but the reality was that it was going to be extremely difficult. It was almost a relief when we did get relegated, because then we could really start to think about the next season.

I’d already planned how I would help the players to put that season behind them.

A few months earlier in the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks had lost the Super Bowl to New England. The day after, Seattle’s head coach Pete Carroll got his team together and showed them a video that was set to some amazing words about coming back stronger.

I asked the media team at the club to clip up some Wigan footage to the same words that he used. The day after our relegation was confirmed, I sat all the players and staff down to watch it.

The message was clear: it’s happened. Now’s the time we come back.

We’re rebuilding this football club.