Harrison Burke recalls his Walsall match-winner against Aston Villa last summer

Harrison Burke will be looking to make more memories when Walsall host Aston Villa in their pre-season friendly under the lights at Bescot.

The defender scored the match-winner when the Premier League outfit last visited WS1 in pre-season last summer.

Walsall continued their pre-season preparations with a 4-2 victory over Nottingham Forest under-21s in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

Summer signing Andrew Dallas bagged a brace - while Aaron Pressley and academy prospect Ryan Sjordesma also got on the score sheet.

“Stay with me forever” - Burke on Villa memories

And Burke has explained how the test against Villa will offer a completely different challenge, as they look to master a variety of sides to their game ahead of the new season.

“Pre-season games are what they are. The Villa players probably won’t remember it, but it’ll stay with me forever.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s all about ticking boxes, getting what we need out of it.

“That’ll be a very different game to the Leamington draw. Different questions will be asked and different answers will be needed.

“It’s just about how we can prepare and how we can flick that switch to an out-of-possession game rather than an in-possession game because we want to be the best in the league at both of them.”

Lee Grant guided the Saddlers to a goalless draw at Leamington in their first outing in front of the supporters and has added further 60-minute clashes against Birmingham City under-21s and Nottingham Forest under-21s.

Early signs have been “excellent” under Grant

Tai Sodje was involved in the latter as he made his debut following his arrival from National League North side Buxton last week.

James Connolly and Ronan Maher (elbow) were not involved and no update has yet been provided ahead of the visit of Villa.

But Burke has been impressed by the early signs under the new head coach and is excited to see where his ideas take them.

“It’s been excellent. I’ve been extremely impressed,” he continued.

“There has been so much detail, so much information and the lads are just completely buying into it.

“You can see how passionate the staff are about what his ethos is and what he wants from us.

“If we buy into it then I’m really confident with what can come from this.

“But it won’t just come overnight. It will take a lot of hard work but we’re willing to do it.”

“We just need to be more consistent”

Burke admits there’s still a lot for the squad to improve on and that showcasing their qualities consistently is a key area of focus.

“There’s a lot of confidence within the group and there are still things we really need to improve on, but it’s early days,” he added.

“The way we set-up at times is excellent, the way we work our throw-ins, set pieces and off-the-ball.

“But we just need to be more consistent because I think complacency can set in.

“There are loads of reasons why. We can make excuses, but as a team, we want to hold ourselves accountable and try to get as close to a 45-minute period without those creeping in.”