Bully praises youngster - exclusive

Last updated : 15 September 2006 By Andy Parsons

Spurr, who played a few games at the end of the last campaign has played in every game this season bar the first two and has impressed in an unfamiliar left-back role.

"Tommy has been outstanding, absolutely outstanding," Bullen told Footymad. "He has come in and done well and deserved to keep his place. He was up against a tough opponent against Southend he matched up well. He got beat once or twice but there's other times when he put in outstanding challenges. When John Hills has been fit, he has been playing on the left-hand side of midfield doing a dog-of-war job for us with Tommy behind him so that helps his game."

The Scottish utility man missed out for three games earlier in the campaign but there's no doubt that he will be used in a number of positions and he admits that Wednesday's injury situation is not as bad as it once was.

He added: "You can see from the bench against Southend that the boys are starting to come back because we had five senior lads on there instead of scholars so that will bode well for a much, much stronger squad and then we have another four or five to come back after that.

"But if we can keep everyone fit then we will start pushing up this league - if Marcus Tudgay can get a few more games under his belt then that will be a massive boost for the club, Stevie Adams coming in to will help add more bite to the midfield area so that's great and that is the sort of problem that the manager wants."

Glenn Whelan is set to miss out from tonight's trip to the KC Stadium but he will be replaced by Adams, but a trip to Hull will always be a tough test for Bullen and co.

He continued: "I wasn't involved at Hull last year because I was injured but I think it is one of the games on paper that at the beginning of the season, Wednesday would have looked at and said that we can get points here. They have not had the best of starts this season but we know it is going to be a tough job there.

"We do know each other very, very well because we got promoted in the same year and because of our battles last year. They have got a new manager in now but they still have a quality squad and spent some money so it will be a tough game but we want to improve from last year's performance there."