Jones set to fly for the Saddlers

The 32-year-old struggled in a stop-start pre-season, picking up a calf injury which hampered his progress in the Saddlers' opening to the season.

But Jones scored his first Saddlers goal in the 2-2 draw with Southend on Saturday and won the penalty for Sam Parkin to score in Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at home to Leeds.

Now the Saddlers head to Charlton on Saturday aiming for their first win since the opening day and Hutchings expects his summer signing to shine.

The manager said: "Steve has been gradually getting better and better. We know he is going to put people on the back foot and he certainly did that on Tuesday. But he has got to do more of it.

"He will admit that his own sharpness is coming back and the goal he scored on Saturday will have been a big plus for him. He had a stop-start pre-season, then he had a little bit of an injury early on.

"I think on Tuesday he showed he is nearly there."

Jones and wing partner Peter Till are the focal points of Hutchings' philosophy of getting the ball wide and the Saddlers chief believes they are a duel threat.

He said: "There will be some games when Jonesy's getting more of the ball than Tilly, then others where Tilly is on song and getting more of the ball.

"I feel with those two players we look a threat in wide positions and put people on the back foot. They are very wary of us."

"We encourage them to get at people, one on one, all the time."