Walsall clash will be 'massive'

Tom Hamer impressed during his full league debut at Oxford on Saturday

A well-earned point in the bank following Saturday’s goalless draw at Oxford, Athletic boss Richie Wellens is now in full-on preparation mode for Wednesday night’s latest crunch home Sky Bet League One clash against Walsall.

Athletic are now two points clear of the third tier drop zone with seven matches to play, and victory in Wednesday’s game in hand on most rivals could provide some more vital breathing space.

Wellens said: “If we win on Wednesday, the point at Oxford will be a really good point, an extremely good point.

“We’re resting up for a few days, then we’ll go again on Wednesday.

“That is a massive game now.

“We need to show that high intensity, because when we work at that we can be a difficult team to play against.

“Saturday’s was a really positive performance.”

The showing at the Kassam Stadium was a generally impressive one, but Kean Bryan limped off early on with a hamstring problem and now could be forced to sit Wednesday’s game out – along with fellow centre-back injury victim Anthony Gerrard.

That’s a concern for Wellens, but he’s clearly got faith in young centre-back pairing George Edmundson and Tom Hamer, who restricted Oxford so encouragingly on Saturday.

Teenager Hamer replaced Bryan from the bench and shone during what was his full league debut.

Wellens added: “It is a worry, but we kept a clean sheet at Oxford so we need to show a lot of admiration for Tom.

“When you start a game, like George did, you’re ready and you’ve prepared right.

“But when you’re thrown in a situation like that after 18 minutes, you sink or you swim.

“He swam at Oxford, and I thought he was brilliant.

“When Kean went off we wondered how it might affect us, but in the end we secured a clean sheet and it didn’t affect the overall performance.”