Given table-toppers United had triumphed in all 14 of their previous meetings with the Latics and went into Wednesday's game at the DW Stadium off the back of an eight-match top-flight winning streak, the odds looked stacked against the hosts, but Shaun Maloney's second-half strike earned them an unlikely 1-0 victory.

More importantly, it also moved Wigan out of the relegation zone for the first time since October and their manager Martinez, while delighted by his players' historic efforts in finally defeating the Red Devils, is adamant the team must keep pushing on in their battle to beat the drop.

"The performance on Wednesday was in many ways very, very important for us," said Martinez, whose side are now 17th in the table, two points clear of 18th-placed Bolton but having played a game more.

"If you ask any Wigan Athletic fan, Manchester United was a scary prospect - any game we went into against them, it was an impossible mission, so to be able to overcome that and just to achieve the three points in the manner we did, it was very pleasing.

"But I don't think we have time to look back too much, because with the position in the table we are in, we have to achieve our aim.

"If we don't, the performance against Manchester United will count for very little.

"It is great in football to get credit - good reports about your performances are always welcome and appreciated.

"But we are realistic about our position in the table and you cannot stop to see what has been written about you when you are in our position.

"We need points, we need to work extremely hard in the next five games and we cannot lose concentration."

The concentration of his team was one of the things Martinez was particularly pleased to see on Wednesday night following the emergence earlier in the day of reports that he was set to quit Wigan at the end of the season.

After the match, the Spaniard confirmed he had signed a new deal at the club last summer for an extra two years and dismissed talk of him leaving.

Martinez wonders where the speculation, which could have proved disruptive to his preparations, might have come from - but he was glad to see that any impact it had on his players was not negative.

"It is not about where the story came from," Martinez said today. "It is about how it affected our football club and it showed me that we are stronger than ever, that we are focused on what we can do and that nothing from the exterior will affect the way we want to perform.

"I'm very pleased with the manner in which we faced that story as a football club and if anything, it has got us even more focused on what we have to do."

Next up for Wigan is Arsenal away on Monday night and striker Hugo Rodallega, who not played since March 11 due to a knee problem, is Martinez's only injury concern.

"Hugo Rodallega is the only one who is still in the balance," Martinez said.

"We need to assess him over the next two or three days to see how he responds, but he has been training with the group.

"He is not at 100% yet and he is the only one where there is a question mark about whether or not he will be available for Monday. Everyone else is fully fit and the squad is as strong as ever."