Friends become foes for Town's Ian Black

Black knows Latics middle men Haris Vuckic and Don Cowie from his time in Scotland.

Wigan are flying with just two defeats in 16 games and nine wins, which have propelled them to fifth in League One.

They've splashed out £1m to Brentford for striker Will Grigg and a six-figure fee on Michael Jacobs from Wolves.

They've also acquired five loan players from the Premier League and three from the second tier, pulling out all the stops in their bid to return to the Championship.

Black is aware of Wigan from his time in Blackburn's academy but is promising his mates no favours tomorrow, as Town make their first trip to the DW Stadium tomorrow.

The 30-year-old said: "It's going to be very difficult. It's a big club and they've been at the top. We've only just come up, but we want to take them down a few pegs.

"They've got good quality, a good manager and they will be very organised.

"I can't remember coming across them too much as a kid, but I know how big a club it is and I know a couple of their boys as well.

"I know Haris from Rangers and Don from Inverness. I've played with them both in the past, so I know all about the quality they've got.

"It will be good to catch up with them but, hopefully, we'll go there and take the three points. We'll be concentrating on how we play and it's down to ourselves really.

"I haven't heard from them this week. If they want to speak to me I'm sure they will, but they're good lads and it will be good to see them again."

After no game for 13 days, tomorrow's clash kicks off a congested spell of six matches in 22 days, four of which are away while the two at home are against the top two, Gillingham and Walsall.

But Black is relishing the hectic period, saying: "As players you want the games to come thick and fast and we've got that.

"Hopefully, we can start with a win on Saturday and get some momentum to go on for the run of games we've got coming up. If you win, you want the matches to come quickly to get a run going."

Last weekend's results saw Shrewsbury drop two places to 19th in the table, but Black believes they need to focus on the teams above them.

The former Scotland international said: "We're only looking above us and that's the driving force we've got to have.

"There's no point looking behind because that's like looking into the past and you can't do anything about that."