The 11-goal wide man helped the Saddlers rescue a point after his 89th minute strike and Will Grigg’s injury time equaliser hauled them back to 2-2 from 2-0 down on Saturday.

It moved them to within three points of League One’s top six with seven games remaining but Paterson felt it was a wake-up call.

He said: “We needed a little kick up the backside maybe. We have been really food in the past few games and it was a bit of a kick in the teeth that we went 2-0 down. We’ve ended snatching a point with two late goals.

“We’re unbeaten in nine games now and we’re carrying good momentum. We’ve ended up closing the gap on the top six with the point.”

Jamie Proctor and Paul Hayes had given Crawley the advantage in a scrappy game before Walsall’s late show.

It extended their unbeaten run to nine games and made it 11 without defeat at the Banks’s Stadium.

Paterson added: “It was a great point in the end, Crawley did play quite well and 2-2 was a great result.

"You could see how much it meant to us and the fans at the end and it could be a massive point.”