James Wilson has played down speculation linking him with a move to Everton after impressing during his loan switch to Brentford.

The 20-year-old made 14 appearances for the Bees last term when he spent the first half of the season at Griffin Park from Bristol City.

The defender's assured performances reportedly attracted the attention of Toffees manager David Moyes, causing the Robins to tie their man down to a new four-year contract last November.

Wilson is now back at Brentford for a second loan stint and he insists rumours over his future are just paper talk.

"I never heard anything about the Everton interest apart from stuff in the papers, so I think it was nothing more than speculation," he told skysports.com.

"It is always nice to be linked with such big clubs as Everton, but I didn't really pay much attention to it anyway.

"There is so much rubbish in the papers these days, which people just seem to make up, so it just goes in one ear and straight out the other."

Wilson has been on the winning side just once since returning to the Bees on loan in the summer and, despite struggling to adapt to life in League One, the centre-half is hopeful the club can turn their fortunes around against his former club Hartlepool on Friday.

"It has been frustrating, but we haven't been playing that bad since I joined the club," he added.

"We were playing really well when I first joined, but the last couple of games have been poor on our part.

"I'm confident that we can turn it around though, starting with the game at my former side Hartlepool on Friday night.

"We've definitely got a great talent within the squad, but it's just a case of doing it on the day. I'm sure we will turn it around sooner rather than later."