New Walsall winger Julian Gray has revealed Villa and England star Emile Heskey’s glowing praise of manager Chris Hutchings convinced him to join the club.

The wide man is set to make his home debut against Brentford, after setting up both the Saddlers’ goals in an impressive showing in Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Leeds.

Gray consulted with Heskey when mulling over the move, an old team-mate from his Birmingham days before Heskey moved to Wigan for £3.5million in 2006 to play under then-manager Hutchings.

The 30-year-old reveals the England striker only had good things to say about the Saddlers boss.

He said: “I know Emile really well and he worked with the gaffer, so told me what a good guy he was and what his philosophy was. I let him know I was coming down and he told me what Chris was like. He said I’d enjoy it, the manager was a football man and that helps. He’s a good coach.

“Emile has been proved right as everything he said about the manager is true and everyone has made me feel really welcome.”

Heskey’s advice swayed the player to take the drop into League One for the first time in his career, after a period without a club since his release from Barnsley in November last year.

But Gray has no regrets about making the switch and doesn’t believe it’s a step down in quality.

He said: “I got the chance to come here and I’ve taken it, I’m not thinking about any steps backwards. It’s football as far as I’m concerned, I try to take it in a positive way. Football is football, I know what my strengths are and just want to play.

“League One isn’t any different to the Championship. You can see it with the quality of the teams down here, Leeds, Norwich, Southampton and Charlton have all played at higher level.

“It’s a mix, it’s still like the Championship, there’s a lot of ex-Championship teams in it and that’s only good for the league.”

After the Saddlers’ win at Leeds on Tuesday, Gray has called on his new team-mates to prove they have the staying power.

They have back-to-back home games with the Bees and then Yeovil on Tuesday which the winger reckons will be the measure of them.

He said: “It’s consistency, that’s what we talk about. It’s alright winning one game but have to keep that level of consistency and performance. We must try to win games and not lose, even if we get a draw we can keep the run going and that’s something which is very difficult to do, but it’s our aim from now and until the end of the season.

“We have our own expectations and we set our own standards. It helps if you have a fortress at home.

“When we go away not many people expect us you to win, but if we can be tight away from home then with our qualities we can nick a win. We’ve got to turn that on at home and make it a fortress.

“We have to get some consistency, we need to build on Tuesday now and get a win. We need to set our stall out first and take the game to Brentford because we’re the home team.

“It’s a positive thing to go to Leeds and play the way we played, it should help us say ‘look, we can do it there why can’t we do it anywhere else’?”

Steve Jones could make a shock return to the squad, despite playing just 35 minutes in the reserves on Wednesday after two month out with a groin injury. Manny Smith and Darren Byfield are also available, but Peter Till is sidelined for 10 days with a hamstring injury.

Rhys Weston (hamstring) and Sam Parkin (groin) will miss out but are due to resume training on Monday.