Walsall winger Julian Gray admitted his opening goal against Hartlepool on Saturday shouldn’t have stood but is still claiming one of the scruffiest strikes of his career.

The wide man bagged his fourth of the season as the Saddlers strolled to a 3-1 win over to claim their third home win on the bounce.

Gray bundled the ball in after Neil Austin’s clearance struck him, but reckons referee Fred Graham could have disallowed the seventh minute strike as it came off his hand.

The 30-year-old said: “I put my hand up to block it but I thought he handballed it on the floor when I first shot so I’ll take it.

“That’s why I didn’t celebrate, I’m not going to stand there and say it didn’t hit my arm because it did. It happened quickly, it just hit me but it’s counted.

“It’s not one of my normal goals but I’ll take it and it’s three points.”

Troy Deeney and Richard Taundry added goals which capped a comfortable win, despite Roy O’Donovan equalising in the first half.

The win, coupled with Milton Keynes Dons losing at Leeds and Brentford drawing at home to Yeovil, means the Saddlers are just two points off 10th spot in League One.

And Gray argues 12th placed Walsall could have been even higher had they killed off sides like Hartlepool this season.

He said: “We’ve been disappointed in some games where we’ve lost to the lesser teams, if we’d won those games or not been down to 10 men in some of them who knows where we could have finished.

“We’ve got two games left and if we win them both hopefully we can finish 10th in the league.”

Boss Chris Hutchings paid tribute to his side’s performance, claiming it was the best of the season, and Gray believes the team has the potential to get even better.

He said: “I can’t comment on the first half of the season as I wasn’t here, I can only comment since I’ve been here and from what I’ve seen there’s a good bunch of players here with a good grounding.

“We have a lot of young players who are now getting experience week in and week out, which will benefit them in the future.”