DANNY Wilson has warned his under-performing Town forwards that he won’t hesitate to wield the axe in a bid to finally end their striking blues.

Billy Paynter, Alex Revell, Ben Hutchinson and Tope Obadeyi have only scored nine goals between them this season, while Charlie Austin and Lee Peacock are waiting in the wings for their chance in the First team.

The manager knows his front men have to consistently find the back of the net if they are to maintain their early challenge for a League One play-off spot, and admitted he will be ruthless to get the right men up top.

“We’ve had consistency in a lot of areas this season, but not yet in the striking department,” Wilson told the Advertiser.

“We’ve had to chop and change for different reasons and I will chop and change until we feel like we’ve got the right blend. I’ve got no worries about that.

“Whatever personnel we put in – be that a pairing or a trio – I think we will cause teams problems because of what we’ve got.

“I’ve got no worries about putting any of them in at any time.

“Sometimes you need game minutes together to start to build a partnership and understand each other’s game, but sometimes you don't have that time.

“We lost Tope for a little while, Alex has had a knock and Billy was left out because he was absolutely knackered.

“So to have everybody firing on all cylinders now would be a big bonus for us all.”

Wilson believes their goalscoring situation isn’t helped by a pressure to replace last season’s 32-goal hitman Simon Cox, but is confident the current crop will come good.

“First and foremost we put a lot of emphasis on the defensive side of things early in the season, which was very important,” explained the boss.

“Also losing the 30 goals that we did with Coxy was never going to be easy to replace.

“There’s a little bit of pressure on one or two players to replicate that, and it’s something that they shouldn’t have the pressure of because he's gone.

“But we have to have the confidence and the faith in the players who are there now, and get a balance between the two or the three who play up there.”