Wigan set Premier target

Jason De Vos, the Wigan Athletic captain, believes his side can "do a Blackburn" and fly straight through the First Division and into the Premiership.

Paul Jewell's side secured promotion from the Second Division on Tuesday without having to kick a ball thanks to events at Gresty Road, where Bristol City held Crewe Alexandra to a 1-1 draw.

All that now remains is for Wigan to seal the title – a victory against either Huddersfield Town or Oldham Athletic over the Easter weekend would do it – and, according to De Vos, the team are setting their sights beyond First Division consolidation.

"Every player who comes to Wigan is aiming to get this team into the Premiership," he said. "Fulham have done it recently and Blackburn did it before that. There is no reason why we can't follow."

Dave Whelan, Wigan's owner, backed De Vos's ambitions. "We won the championship in Division Three and now we have been promoted to Division One," Whelan said. "Our aim now is to go for the Premiership.

"When Paul Jewell came in we knew there was a lot of hard work to do but now we are reaping the rewards. I'm proud as punch with our success."

As the rest of the football world grapples with economic difficulties that lie ahead, Wigan, with Whelan's backing, have continued to spend. The arrival of Nathan Ellington for a club-record £750,000 from Bristol Rovers 12 months ago was an indication of the ambition within the club and the outlay has been repaid with 15 league goals from 'The Duke' this term.

De Vos knows that Wigan have been the subject of jealous taunts from their rivals, who insist success is to be expected given the size of Whelan's wallet. The straight-talking Canadian international is more that willing to refute those theories.

"People are just using the money as an excuse," he said. "I don't think we have bought success. Whenever we play a team they raise their standards because they look upon us as a big club."

With four games remaining, Wigan need just 10 more points to beat Fulham's divisional record of 101, set four years ago. De Vos, though, is refusing to consider such a tally. "Nobody has mentioned 100 points in the same way as nobody mentioned promotion," he said. "Our next aim is to make sure we win the title, just to make the season a bit more special."