O'Brien-Whitmarsh 'made to feel very welcome' by team-mates

The 21-year-old Irishman joined on a three-year deal last week and made his debut in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Crewe, coming off the bench with 25 minutes to play.

"I've enjoyed my first week and I've been made to feel very welcome,” he said. “I feel I've settled in well with the boys and the staff. Last week was a bit stop-start with the Tuesday game but I’m looking forward to a full week of training to get ready for the weekend. Hopefully we can start putting some results together and I’ll enjoy it even more.”

Named on the bench for Saturday’s trip to Crewe, O’Brien-Whitmarsh replaced Logan Briggs midway through the second half.

"I'm fit and I'm ready for selection but it's only my first week at the club,” he added. “It was the gaffer's decision and I'll just keep my head down, train hard and hopefully get myself into the team at the weekend. I tried to make an impact as soon as I came on and bring some energy to the team but ultimately it wasn't enough.”

The former Saints man made a positive impact from the bench and created Town’s best chance of the game when teeing up Elliott List for a one-on-one opportunity.

He continued: "I'm glad to have made my debut but it's not the result we came for. Hopefully next week we can get our first win.

"We didn't do enough to win the game and that's on us. It's good to see the fans travel in their numbers and I thought we gave them a decent performance but we can be better and that'll be the aim at Gillingham.

"There's 46 games, it's a long season, and come the end of the season we'll be where we need to be, that's all that matters. We'll reflect on what we need to do better and we'll come back in ready to wok.

"I think we're close. We have a good group and we're not far off. We just need to put the ball in the net and get that first win out of the way and then we'll be a really good team."