Jon Whitney: Andreas Makris making good Walsall progress

The Saddlers broke their 37-year-old transfer record to bring in the Cypriot striker from Anorthosis Famagusta.

Although the fee for the 20-year-old was officially undisclosed, the club confirmed it surpasses the £175,000 paid to Birmingham to secure the services of all-time top goalscorer Alan Buckley in 1979.

Makris has now made four appearances in all competitions for the club but has failed to find the net.

He did hit the crossbar against Chesterfield and in the last game against Charlton he had two good chances to get off the mark before being substituted shortly after the hour-mark for Amadou Bakayoko.

Whitney has been happy with what he has seen from the forward so far, describing him as 'a threat' for the way he has linked up with the likes of Franck Moussa, Kieron Morris and Simeon Jackson.

He knows Makris, who has 10 caps for his country, will take time to get to his best though and said: "Andreas has come from Cyprus to the English game and he's starting to get used to the pace now.

"I thought he was a threat (against Charlton) and he links in well but he fatigues with the amount of shift he puts in.

"I have to realise it's going to take him time to have 90 minutes after 90 minutes, minutes on a Tuesday night and then minutes on a Saturday. He is still new to the English game but he will get there."

In terms of the side as a whole, Whitney wants them to 'start showing more belief' and be more resilient. He believes they could have got at least a point against Charlton if they had a more positive mindset, and wants them to right the wrongs of that performance against Bury on Saturday.

"I thought the lads did well, they equipped themselves well," said Whitney.

"It was just the manner of that second goal – all that hard work they put in, then we get done with a sucker punch and it was too easy for them to walk the ball into the net.

"I am not going to allow it to happen.

"If we had come away with a draw, we would have felt it was a fair result against a good Charlton but we need to understand that we are actually a good team as well and we need to start showing more belief. We can put teams like Charlton to bed if we are more resilient and more robust on the transition. That's something we will try to put right in the coming weeks."

Whitney said skipper Adam Chambers was 'close' to returning for the Charlton game but was ultimately 'too much of a risk' to be included in the squad.

Erhun Oztumer was named on the bench and came on as a late substitute as the side chased another leveller but the boss insisted he 'still felt his hip a little bit'.