JOSH Amis’ impact since returning to fitness for Warrington Town has been instant, but manager Paul Carden insists he cannot be left to shoulder the goalscoring burden alone.

However, he believes that fellow striker Joe Rodwell-Grant will become a valuable asset despite his difficult start to life at Cantilever Park.

The 21-year-old has netted just once in 10 appearances since joining the club in the summer and was substituted after an hour at Radcliffe on Saturday with the team 1-0 down.

Skipper Amis replaced him and played a key role in turning the game on its head, holding the ball up to set up Josh Miles’ equaliser before scoring the winner himself.

That came a week after his first appearance since shoulder surgery saw him win the penalty that snatched them a point at Chorley.

The immediacy with which Amis has impacted the team puts Rodwell-Grant’s struggles into context, and Carden says the youngster will need to do his bit as the club captain builds his fitness.

The Town boss insists, however, that he has every faith in him fulfilling his potential.

“Josh is valuable to us and he knows that, but we also know we can’t flog him. When you do that, he breaks,” he said.

“That’s why it’s important Joe steps up to it – he’s got so many good attributes but he just needs a bit of confidence.

“He just needs to focus on doing one thing at a time instead of trying to do everything – he’s trying to run the channels, hold the ball up, win headers, shoot when it’s not on.

“He’s a great lad and he wants to work hard and learn, so it will come.

“Sometimes it happens with forwards, especially young lads – they start fighting with the game.

“We’ll keep working with him and chipping away, and it will definitely drop for him. He’s got the raw attributes.

“When I was at Nantwich in pre-season and Bees (former Town boss Mark Beesley) brought the team over to play us, he was unplayable against some good centre-halves.

“When I came back, I was excited to work with him and I think there’s going to be a good player for the club there.

“He’s just got to focus and keep working, which he will and he’ll get his rewards for that.”

With four points gained from their two away fixtures since Carden’s return, a solid platform has been laid for his first home fixture back in charge.

Yellows welcome struggling Oxford City to Cantilever Park on Saturday for the first of back-to-back home fixtures in the space of four days, with high-flying Hereford visiting on Tuesday night.

And as they bid to climb the National League North table, Carden says their form on their own turf needs to be the driving force behind that.

“Points on the road are important and we’ve taken four, but we’ve got to back it up,” he said.

“We need to back these positive results away from home with positive results at home.

“We’ve fought hard in the last two games to pick these points up and now, we need to make sure our home form is what’s going to drive us up the division.

“You take points anywhere but certainly, these two home games are really important for us.”