Walsall manager Mat Sadler insists that his side need to maintain their belief in order to recover from their recent poor form.
The Saddlers have been the pacesetters in League Two for the majority of the campaign. The title looked done and dusted at the turn of the year, where they sat 12 points clear with a game in hand on New Year’s Day.
A run of just two wins in 11 games has seen that lead diminish, with Bradford City emerging as their nearest challengers. They lost 3-1 at home to Grimsby Town on Saturday lunchtime, which opened up an opportunity for the Bantams to jump to the top of the table. However, Walsall were let off the hook when Graham Alexander’s side suffered a shock 1-0 defeat against struggling Gillingham.
The League Two table on New Year’s Day compared to tonight’s. That is a remarkable turnaround from Bradford (we’ll not mention Walsall!). #BCAFC #Saddlers pic.twitter.com/0EdzhrYrSz
— The Real EFL (@RealEFLSocial) March 4, 2025
Sadler Not Worried About Poor Form
Walsall will be hoping to end a run of four games without a win when they travel to Bromley on Thursday. Despite their recent form, Sadler remains confident that they can turn things around. Speaking to BBC Radio WM, he said:
“The most important thing from my side of the fence is not to forget about what we’ve done previously – we are very, very good. We’ve proven that countless times and we should all be proud of what a very good team we are.
“You get judged by those wins and we’re looking forward to picking up that next win and maybe that will galvanise everyone to move on into that next stage.
“It’s up to us to dust ourselves down and go again.
“No-one should think anything other that it’s a really competitive, long arduous league. It has proven that time and time again,” he said.
“We’ve got to go after the next thing, keep believing in who we are and trusting who we are. We’ve just got to ride through any setbacks and maintain that belief.
“We’re having a fantastic season and we’re still in a fantastic position. We’ve just lost a couple of games and we have to move forward.”
Writer’s View
Few would have predicted Walsall’s collapse during the second half of the season after how good they were prior to the New Year. They looked as if they would canter to the League Two title but now have a very real chance of surrendering their lead. They should still secure automatic promotion quite comfortably though. They are eight points above fourth-placed Wimbledon, but anything less than a winners’ medal would surely be considered a failure judging by how far they were ahead in January.
