Former Sligo Rovers boss Paul Cook appointed at Wigan Athletic

Former Sligo Rovers manager Paul Cook has been appointed number one at English League One side Wigan Athletic after signing a three-year contract with the Lancashire club.

Cook joins fresh from guiding Portsmouth to the same division after pipping Doncaster Rovers to the League Two championship on the final day earlier this month.

The Latics reached a compensation agreement with Portsmouth over the weekend and began talks with Merseyside native Cook and announced his appointment on Wednesday afternoon.

“Wigan was my first club back in the day when Harry McNally had us all and it’s been great to see the club go on to the achievements it’s had in the past few years and that’s great credit to the managers and the chairman,” Cook told the Latics' official website.

“The club’s come a long, long way from them days and hopefully my job now will be to try and take us back up the pyramid.

“My philosophy goes before me; when I started at Accrington Stanley in England and then at Chesterfield and then Portsmouth,” he said.

“Hopefully I can bring that style of play here now; I want to attack, pass the ball well, go forwards quickly and excite our own fans.

“In a football match, there are two teams and you must always respect the opposition in relation to what you do.

“We’ll work hard in the summer now, get back for pre-season and hopefully hit the ground running as much as we can.”

50-year-old Cook spent several years with Wigan as a player, first joining as a 17-year-old in 1984 before returning for a brief loan spell towards the end of his career in 2001.

He had spells with Norwich City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Coventry City, Tranmere Rovers, Stockport County, Burnley and Accrington Stanley in a 23-year playing career.

The Liverpudlian began his managerial career with Southport in 2006 before being headhunted by Sligo the following season, where he won the FAI Cup twice and the EA Sports Cup in a five-year spell.

In 2012, he took over at Accrington Stanley and the following season was appointed manager of Chesterfield, whom he guided to the League One title in 2013-14 before moving to Pompey the following year.