Josh netted nine goals in forty-five first-team appearances last season but is yet to open his account for the 2019/20 campaign. And Dutton has called upon the Stoke-on-Trent-born forward to keep the faith and the goals will come.
The former Leicester City prospect is competing with the likes of Elijah Adebayo, Caolan Lavery, and on-loan Salford City striker Rory Gaffney for a starting spot and has been backed to find the back of the net as Dutton believes all strikers have peaks and troughs.
Speaking via the Express & Star, Brian admitted that Josh is lacking confidence but backed him to come good, he said; "I think he will be. It’s natural if you haven’t scored for a while, strikers that’s all they want to do, score goals.
"It’ll come for Josh. We said to all the strikers it’s peaks and troughs, sometimes you get them and they’re on fire and sometimes it takes a while for them to get on a run.
"Similar to us, we haven’t got going this season, we haven’t created enough opportunities for the strikers, they’ve been feeding off scraps and hopefully we can do more to give them opportunities to score goals.
"I’m sure they will, all four of them have got good qualities and they’ll come to the fore.
"We can name numerous strikers who don’t score goals and we think they’re not strikers and then all of a sudden they hit the purple patch and they can’t stop scoring.
"He needs to keep his confidence, keep his belief and he needs to keep putting himself in the right situations to score goals.
"It’s no good if he starts coming away from the goal – he’ll get there, he’s got a great work ethic, he’s got a great attitude and I’m sure he’ll get there."
Brian then went on to praise fellow coach, Marcus Stewart, for his part in helping the club’s forwards evolve over the early stages of the season.
The former Bristol Rovers, Huddersfield Town, Ipswich Town, and Sunderland striker has a proven pedigree and Dutton believes he is the perfect man to help Josh and his teammates get among the goals.
Brian continued; "If you can’t take tips from Marcus Stewart then you’re struggling aren’t you.
"He’s got the experience, he’s been through the situations Josh has been through and he’s obviously come through the other end and scored many goals.
"The lads have got full confidence in Marcus, rightly so, because he’s a top, top coach and has that top experience that he can lean on."