He insists it is nothing personal, but Anthony Gerrard is ready to make it a frustrating end to the season for Saddlers team mate Ian Roper.

Gerrard today admitted he would happily condemn Roper to the Saddlers sidelines for the rest of the club’s promotion campaign if it means finally reaching double figures for consecutive starts.

But the 20-year-old defender, who made an impressive return to the team at Macclesfield in Tuesday’s 2-0 win, is quick to stress that his wish to keep Roper down is strictly business.

“Hopefully I can keep him out for a bit longer yet by doing my job whenever I play,” said Gerrard.

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He insists it is nothing personal, but Anthony Gerrard is ready to make it a frustrating end to the season for Saddlers team mate Ian Roper.

Gerrard today admitted he would happily condemn Roper to the Saddlers sidelines for the rest of the club’s promotion campaign if it means finally reaching double figures for consecutive starts.

But the 20-year-old defender, who made an impressive return to the team at Macclesfield in Tuesday’s 2-0 win, is quick to stress that his wish to keep Roper down is strictly business.

“Hopefully I can keep him out for a bit longer yet by doing my job whenever I play,” said Gerrard.”Ideally he will stay out for the rest of the season. That’s not me being nasty or having anything against ‘Ropes’ because everybody knows what a good player he is.

“It is just football and it’s the way you have to be if you want to play every week.

“It’s unfortunate for ‘Ropes’ but it is an opportunity for me and it’s one I have to take.

“You can’t perform when you’re not in the team and that’s disappointing.

“All you can do is get on with it and hope that the players who are in the team do their job properly, even if that means you can’t get back in.”

Since starting the first nine matches of Walsall’s season, Gerrard has found his progress hampered by a combination of injury and suspension.

He served a three-match ban following his sending off against Peterborough, then returned for another seven consecutive games before his injury problems struck.

An ankle injury kept him out for five games and the whole of November. Then, after just two games back the starting line-up following two substitute appearances, he suffered concussion at Boston and did not start again until this week.

It has meant his distinctive Scouse tones and willingness to voice his grievances has made him hard to ignore in the dressing room, and Gerrard admits he is still getting used to life on the sidelines.

“It’s not like me to moan,” he joked.

“No, seriously, it’s really frustrating at first when you’re not in the team because you’re working really hard in the week and there is no game to look forward to at the end of it.

“But you have to get over it and get on with your job.”

Gerrard seems certain to retain his place against Rochdale tomorrow with Roper’s knee injury still troubling him, and after helping Saddlers back to winning ways on Tuesday he is itching for another taste of the action.

“Games like Tuesday are the games that you’ve got to win. We knew Boston was going to be tough at the weekend because they’re big and strong and they make life very difficult for opponents. But we knew it was important that we bounced back and that was exactly what we did.

“Rochdale had a difficult start to the season after we won 1-0 there on the opening day,” he said.

“But they have changed the manager and changed the team a little bit and they have improved a lot recently.

“They have been scoring lots of goals and they beat MK Dons 5-0 last week so we know how dangerous they are, but we got a clean sheet on Tuesday and we’ll be looking for another one.”

By Steve Madeley