JAMIE Walker is backing a new boss to give some direction to City’s season.

An appointment is expected imminently to end a five-week wait since Mark Hughes was sacked.

Joey Barton is the latest rumoured name to be added to a list of potential candidates for the Valley Parade vacancy that includes Dean Holden, Graham Alexander and Leam Richardson.

Danny Cowley remains the favourite with the bookies but has reportedly changed his mind over the job.

Mark Trueman took charge of Saturday’s FA Cup defeat to Wycombe after Kevin McDonald had been in the caretaker role for City’s previous seven games.

Walker is looking forward to a permanent arrival after the period of uncertainty following the departure of Hughes last month.

“It’s never easy,” he admitted. “A lot of people with different ideas try and get their point across and maybe we’re lacking a little bit of direction of where we want to go.

“But it will be great for the group when we get a new manager in. Everyone will get a lift, even the boys who’ve not been involved.

“It’s a clean slate for everyone and we’ll all be looking forward to Saturday. Hopefully we can still salvage something from the season.”

The new manager will make his dug-out debut at home against Barrow at the weekend as City look to revive their lowly 16th-placed league standing.

Walker believes whoever gets the job will have been encouraged by their FA Cup display.

He added: “You’ve seen the quality we’ve got in the group against a strong League One side. If he was watching, I think he’ll be pleased with what he’s seen.

“Hopefully with a few tweaks with his ideas, we can be more successful.

“We’re only six points off the play-offs. It’s quite mad to say that after the start to the season we’ve had.

“But if we get a new manager in with new ideas, we can really kick on and still have a successful season.”

Walker netted his third goal of the season as City fought back with a strong second-half display after Wycombe had led 2-0 at the break.

“We’re disappointed to go out of a competition we wanted to progress in.

“I thought we gave everything performance-wise and created a few chances second half. We were unlucky not to get the equaliser over the course of the game.

“We dominated the ball for large parts. We were at home and to go in at half-time two goals down was always going to be a mountain to climb.

“We’re disappointed with the goals we gave away but we gave a good account of ourselves against a strong League One side. We thought we did enough to at least get a replay.

“We couldn’t ask much more of the group. We played on the front foot and it was a decent cup tie.

“If we play with that aggressiveness creating chances in the league then we won’t be far away from picking up three points.

“We’ve got another game at home against Barrow on Saturday. If we get another performance close to that then I’m sure we will be fine.”