Alfie Potter’s hat-trick for the reserves this week has pushed his claims to play a part in Oxford United’s team at Morecambe on Saturday.

Manager Chris Wilder believes the treble Potter bagged in Wednesday’s 6-1 Totesport.com Combination win at Stevenage will have boosted his confidence in front of goal.

And he feels he should get more goals anyway.

“Alfie possibly doesn’t score enough for the ability he has,” Wilder said.

“So that will hopefully give him the confidence to kick on and score a few more goals, because he should do.”

Wilder admits a lot of thought went into whether to bring Potter on as a second-half substitute in the League Two game at Stevenage on Tuesday night, which finished 0-0.

In the end, the coaching staff chose to go with Steve MacLean, who has more experience up front.

But he was delighted with the attitude and response of those players who played in the reserves the following night, and made such an impact.

“I’ve always said the mentality of the football club, and I control the senior players – the reserves and the first team – is first class. It has to be.

“It was a little bit of a dilemma on Tuesday, whether to stick Alfie on going into the last ten to 15 minutes.

“We had to think about Stevenage’s height and set pieces, and we just felt we needed more control at the top of the pitch.

“We’re glad that people are producing decent performances in the reserves. I was disappointed with them a week ago.

“The reserves is not just for players to get minutes, we want them to do well and be knocking on the door, and Alfie’s done that.

“It was good also to see Damian (Batt) back, he’s still got a part to play.

“It’s good that players are showing great attitudes and putting in decent performances.

“We need to keep everybody fit and fresh going into the back end of the season, and that will determine how well we do.”

Batt has completed his three-match ban, so is available again.

Oxford, in eighth position in the table, have ten points more than 17th-placed Morecambe, who drew 3-3 at Northampton in a topsy-turvy game in midweek.

United centre back Jake Wright said: “Morecambe had an away draw in the week, the same as us, so we’re in the same boat.

“They’ll be looking to win at home and we’re looking to get the three points because we were a bit disappointed to only draw at Stevenage when I thought we were the better team.”

Morecambe: (from) Roche, Holdsworth, Parrish, Charnock, Capaldi, Hurst, Drummond, Fleming, Wilson, Jevons, Spencer, Walker, Hunter, Wainwright, McCready, Hendrie, Mullin, Brown, Carlton.

Oxford Utd: (from) Clarke, Purkiss, Worley, Wright, Tonkin, Heslop, McLaren, Clist, MacLean, Constable, Craddock, Batt, Payne, Hall, Hackney, Midson, Potter, Eastwood, Kinniburgh.