WIGAN ATHLETIC are lining up a surprise swoop for Scunthorpe youngster Marcus Williams to replace Leighton Baines.

Williams, 21, is a highly-rated left-back who has been attracting interest from Premiership clubs.

Wigan are desperate to replace Baines who joined Everton last week for £6m and Latics' boss Chris Hutchings ran the rule over Williams in a pre-season clash with Lincoln.

Williams, a Doncaster lad has come through the system at Scunthorpe. He was transfer-listed towards the end of last season and is coming out of contract. Latics scouts also monitored his form at Charlton on Saturday.

Bill Green, Wigan's European scout is a former Scunthorpe manager and he too has checked out the young defender who likes to attack. Wigan have also been linked with Preston's Matt Hill but he is under contract at Deepdale and is currently sidelined with a heel injury.

Kevin Kilbane deputised for Baines at left-back in Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Everton.

A plus for Latics in the Goodison Park opener was an encouraging debut for young Swedish centre-half Andreas Granqvist.

Performance

He spent the second half of last season on loan at Latics and would not have been back had Paul Jewell remained as manager but Hutchings saw something he liked in the former Helsingborgs player.

Granqvist was pleased with the way things went for him at Everton and hopes to be involved in tomorrow night's home game with Middlesbrough.

Granqvist, a 6ft 4ins tall central defender said: "I thought Saturday was a good league debut for me and I was happy to play the first game.

"I was glad to be involved and hopefully I showed the manager and our fans that I am a good player. I will have got more confidence from playing in this game and we were all disappointed to lose.

"Looking at our overall performance, the first half was OK but it wasn't as good as it should have been. I thought in the second half we did well. We were much better and we could have scored more goals.

"I have never played at the JJB Stadium so, hopefully, I will be involved in the next game against Middlesbrough where it's important we pick up points because you always want to do that on your own pitch."

Hutchings is expected to keep faith with the same starting XI. New signing Michael Brown, the former City player is again suspended but it seems only a matter of time before he gets a place in the starting line up ahead of Dutchman Denny Landzaat.

He disappointed for most of last season and despite setting up the Wigan goal at Everton, he was again relatively ineffective and on his own admission has struggled with the pace of Premiership football.

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