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Dean Keates: Stats show that Walsall are improving

Boss Dean Keates revealed he's been crunching the numbers to ensure Walsall rediscover their best form.

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Saddlers boss Dean Keates.

The Saddlers put in an impressive display only to be held to a goalless draw by Fleetwood on Saturday.

That clash, at Highbury Stadium, saw Keates' side record their first clean sheet in eight games with the result coming just a week after they beat Coventry in the FA Cup.

Prior to that, the Saddlers had lost four league games in five but Keates says the statistics prove Walsall - who remain just two points off the League One play-offs in 11th - are returning to the impressive form they showed at the start of the season.

“On the stats and all the data, we are back where we were at the beginning of the season," Keates said.

“The few times, over the last weeks, when we’ve tailed off, all the tracking and the data that we compile says that.

“When our sprint distances are up where they need to be, we pick up our points.

“There’s a lot of young lads here (on loan) from Premier League teams, Championship teams and then lads who have come up from non-league so it’s a big step up for all of them.

“We are a work in progress. It was a young, young squad, up until Russell Martin was added the other week and he has made a difference already, you can see that in the changing room.

“There are going to be ups and downs throughout the course of the season.

“All we say to them is ‘go out there and give an honest performance, give 110 per cent for us’ and when we have done that, we’ve picked up our points.”

Keates, meanwhile, scotched rumours in a national newspaper that left-back Luke Leahy – out of contract next summer – has turned down a new deal at the Banks’s Stadium.

He confirmed: “There’s no contract been offered to Luke so what’s been said in one of the national newspapers is fabricated by the paper.

“He’s performed really well so far, Luke, and long may it continue.”