Sky's the limit as Yanic calls the Toon

Wigan Athletic entertain Newcastle United at the DW Stadium in a vital game at both ends of the Championship.

And Wildschut – who put in his best performance in a Wigan shirt during the televised win at Huddersfield last month – is looking for a repeat performance.

“Morgs (Craig Morgan) has been saying I only turn up for the Sky games, but we’ll see,” Wildschut told the Evening Post.

“Seriously, it’s nice for my family back home to be able to watch me, and it would be very nice for me to come up with a goal for them.

“Everyone will be round at my parents’ house in Amsterdam – my parents, my uncles, my aunts, my grandad, my grandma, they’ll all be there.

“That will be nice, because they aren’t able to get over here as much as they used to.

“Thank goodness for the Sky games!”

A repeat of the 2-1 victory at Huddersfield, when Wildschut scored one and made the other, would be a timely boost for a Latics side still smarting from their last-gasp defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday.

“We came so close, but in the end it was probably the right result,” Wildschut recognised.

“Obviously to concede a goal like that, an absolute beauty, top bins, was disappointing, because we’d worked so hard.

“Everyone had worked their socks off, grafting for a point, but it’s not going our way at the moment.

“The luck the top teams have, we just haven’t had this season.

“But the games are coming thick and fast, and all of our focus is on bouncing back against Newcastle.

“Even though we’re low down in the table, everyone knows what we’re capable of.

“When we are on our game, we look a good side – we just need to show it more often.”

The visit of the table-topping Toon is the latest in an arduous run of fixtures that has ensured a baptism of fire for new boss Warren Joyce.

“Yes it’s a hard month for us, but these are the games you want to play in,” acknowledged Wildschut.

“When we knew we were going up, we looked at the teams coming down from the Premier League – like Newcastle and Aston Villa – and those were the ones we were looking forward to the most.

“We start the game on zero as ever, and fingers crossed we can get the result.

“Newcastle are doing really well, but I think we’ve also shown – even though our league position is not good – we have been hard to beat.

“So often it’s been one goal that’s been the difference, and we have to keep going and hope the result comes our way.

“We just need a win from somewhere to generate a bit of momentum.

“Hopefully it will come against Newcastle.”