Boxing Day saw plenty of important results up and down The EFL, but perhaps none more important than Walsall’s home victory over Doncaster Rovers, as The Saddlers opened up a huge gap at the top of the fourth tier table.
The impressive victory sees them pull nine points clear at the top of the league with a game in hand on the chasing pack, and ten points clear of yesterday’s visitors. A win against Newport County and a mimimum of a draw at Notts County on New Years Day will see them reach 50 points at the halfway stage of the season.
Speaking via The Express and Star, manager Mat Sadler hailed his side’s massive shift on Boxing Day to make it five wins on the spin in the league:
“They changed the way that they have been playing and I always say to the players that I can tell you and give you the best preparation possible but the opposition might change what they’ve been doing.”
“That’s what they did and we probably had to adjust and adapt. It was a tight first half with both teams giving it a good go. The game really opened up with the first goal and we spoke at half-time about continually repeating what our strengths are.
“The all-round work ethic, I thought we got stronger as the game went on and showed a real desire to score more goals. On another day we probably would’ve done so it was a really pleasing performance.”
Walsall now have the best home form in League Two, winning 8 of their 11 matches at The Bescot Stadium, losing just the one.
Sadler also confirmed the good news of returning midfielder Brandon Comley, who has missed a month of action since being injured in The Fa Cup, but is now available just at the right time as the festive period of football takes full swing:
“His mask is on. He is the batman. So he’s training now and we want to make sure he’s confident with it.
“But yes he’s training and he’s fit to play.”
The midfielder is enjoying his third season for The Saddlers, but has missed a large part of the season due to injury, eight more appearnces will see him tick off the 100 match mark at the heart of the Walsall midfield, and they will be counting down the days till he is back on the pitch to help push the side towards their promotion goals.
Writers View
It would seem as though Walsall are running away with League Two following yesterday’s win, it does not look like any other team has the current form to close such a big gap.
Whether Walsall can maintain their form is a different question however, with still over half of the season to play anything can happen, but their first period of the campaign has definitely given them a huge platform to build on in the race to League One.
