WANDERERS will ring the changes for tonight’s cup clash with Barnsley – but Alex Baptiste believes one of the incoming players boasts the ability to be League One’s best this season.

Ricardo Santos looks set to make his season bow against the Tykes after sitting out Saturday’s 3-3 draw with MK Dons, leaving Baptiste to partner George Johnston at the heart of the defence.

It was the first time since signing for the club from Barnet that Santos missed a league match and Ian Evatt admitted after the game that not including his defensive talisman had been a “very difficult choice”.

Santos - who previously played in the third tier for Peterborough United - is one of a handful of players who missed a chunk of pre-season with Covid but should be fit enough to face Barnsley alongside Will Aimson, Adam Senior or Harry Brockbank.

Baptiste looks like he will get the night off after his heroics against MK but should Santos prove his fitness there could be a big selection decision for Evatt to make as he takes his side to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.

Having played the second half of last season as left-sided centre-half, Baptiste admits it was a big adjustment swapping sides with the left-footed Johnston on Saturday.

“As you get used to one position it can be hard to adjust to the other one. I know people will say ‘it’s still centre half’ but your positioning is different and you link up with different people,” he said.

“It is my second time there but for the team it will be good to have the big man back. I said last year he was the best player in League Two and this year I think he can be the best player in League One.

“George did unbelievably well and he’s going to be a great player. Left footers always look more cultured than us right footers. He has a massive future and only just come back from Covid. I had it and it’s tough.”

Evatt has stacked up his defensive options over the summer, meaning it is less likely that the 35-year-old Baptiste and Santos will have a complete monopoly on the centre-back positions this season.

“I think the three who didn’t play today could start in any League One team,” Baptiste reflected. “Competition is massive and you have to be training well and on your game out on the pitch as well.

“There is a feelgood factor around the club now and gaffer has touched on it, if we’re in it together then we can go places. It’s a real positive.

“There will be low times but with the squad he has put together I think there will be plenty more positive times.”

Baptiste’s goal against MK Dons was his first for the club in more than seven years and his first for anyone since scoring the winner for Preston North End against Norwich in October 2016.

Wanderers also had debutants Amadou Bakayoko and Josh Sheehan contribute a goal apiece on the day, something Baptiste believes will please his manager, who had been calling for more support for Eoin Doyle.

“I didn’t score last year, we didn’t score a direct free kick, and we had so many great chances last season,” he said.

“The standard of this league is better and we all have to pitch in. It can’t just be Doyler against the world.”

Having picked their way through the heavy pitches and long throws of League Two last season, Baptiste is now confident Wanderers fans will get plenty more entertainment like the six-goal thriller they witnessed on Saturday.

“A lot of teams in this division will play good football, I think they over-play, but that’s how they want to do it and good luck to them,” he said.

“There isn’t a lot of route one or those horrible League Two pitches that we had last season. “Teams will try and play and if it goes like today then it will be one hell of a ride.”