Express & Star

Walsall v Stevenage: Saddlers must build on recent run

Walsall may have won their last three matches in a row, but boss Darrell Clarke concedes there is still plenty of work to do.

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For starters, just one of those three victories brought the Saddlers three vital points in League Two – the other wins being in the EFL Trophy and FA Cup.

That has only just begun to repair the damage caused by six consecutive league defeats that saw Clarke’s side slip towards the depths of the division.

The team occupying that final place in the EFL, Stevenage, are the visitors to the Banks’s Stadium tomorrow.

Victory would take 21st-placed Walsall eight points clear of the only relegation position.

Defeat, on the other hand, would leave the Saddlers just two points clear of Stevenage having played a game more.

And that’s why there can be no hiding.

“I’m not shirking my own responsibilities,” said Clarke. “I have to do a lot better and my players had to do a lot better.

“We’ve got our three wins on the spin now, but we still have a hell of a lot of work to do to keep progressing. That’s what we will do.

“There’s no problem with the boys’ attitude and desire, but we’re just asking them to be better.

“Even in the six-game run that we lost, we deserved more than we got in some of the games.

“But we didn’t get that and it builds pressure.”

That pressure built so much that tomorrow’s clash could be considered an early-season six-pointer in some quarters – but not with Clarke.

“Everyone is a big game, we want to win every game,” he said. “You can’t big up a game bigger than any other.

“It’s about winning, resetting yourself and getting back in the zone.”

One way the Saddlers tried to rediscover the form that took them on a four-match winning run before those six losses in a row was coming together for a team meeting.

And they responded by thrashing League Two leaders Forest Green Rovers 6-0 in the EFL Trophy.

Defender Callum Cockerill-Mollett, who was thrust into the team for the last three matches but may be rested tomorrow, explained: “We had a little team meeting just before Forest Green and we all want to do well for each other. We all want to progress with Walsall so hopefully this is a turning point and we can carry on and keep getting the wins.”

Success tomorrow could lift the Saddlers level on points with Mansfield in 14th and looking at the next group of clubs above them who are all jockeying for position just outside the play-offs.

“Obviously we’re both towards the bottom of the league,” added Cockerill-Mollett. “It should be a good game – hopefully we can get the three points and climb away from the bottom of the table and get into the top.”

Stuart Sinclair and Cameron Pring are still injured and unlikely to feature tomorrow, but boss Clarke hopes the rest of the quad will take confidence from Wednesday’s FA Cup replay win at non-league Darlington.

“Hopefully our boys are a bit buoyed by us getting to the next round, probably not by the performance”, said Clarke.

“But it wasn’t about a performance, it was about getting through to the Cup second round.”