Walsall FC: Dean Holden's alert to Pompey danger

Dean Holden today warned Walsall FC to ignore the Portsmouth smokescreen and insisted Pompey are not in crisis.

The defender reckons the fallen Premier League club pose a bigger threat than any League One team despite their financial troubles.

Pompey will be hit with a 10-point penalty when they come out of administration and were forced to rebuild a team from scratch in the summer.

But Holden insisted Portsmouth's problems are not as bad as they seem ahead of the Saddlers' trip to Fratton Park on Saturday.

He said: "I know one or two who have gone there on good money, so I don't believe they're in complete trouble.

"It's been reported that they're in all this trouble but they have some good players, established Championship players, so it's not going to be easy by any stretch.

"It's going to be hard. Everyone said it about Doncaster because they'd lost a load of players and had a bunch of trialists.

"I said to the lads that it was going to be one of our hardest games.

"It's the same with Portsmouth. They are always going to attract good players because of the fanbase, size of the club and the stadium. It will be one of the toughest games we have this season.

"We can go there after a good week, though. It's always better in training when you've won."

The 32-year-old scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over MK Dons to extend the Saddlers' unbeaten League One run to four games.

He earned praise for his performance with skipper Andy Butler in defence and said the pair are happy to do the dirty work.

He said: "We're good for each other.

"We're good talkers which is a bit 'old school', but it helps because we are a young team who want to run around and get on the ball. It takes a bit of dictating from behind sometimes.

"We're not going to get the ball and start doing Cryuff turns or anything but we'll play to our strengths and we're happy to let the other lads get on with it."