Dean Smith is anxious to ease pressure
Friday 25th February 2011, 11:28AM GMT.
Boss Dean Smith today moved to take the relegation heat off his Walsall fighters and insisted they ‘focus on the job’.
The Saddlers could escape the League One drop zone for the first time in four months tomorrow if they beat Rochdale and Swindon fail to win at Southampton.
Plymouth’s 10-point deduction for calling in the administrators boosted the Saddlers’ survival hopes and moved them up to fourth-from-bottom.
But Smith said they must ignore the pressure.
“If we start talking about being in the bottom four it starts playing on people’s minds and I don’t want that to happen,” he said. “I want them to take each game, try to win it and take the three points.
“I don’t talk to the lads about getting out of the bottom four — for me it’s all about winning a football match. It’s three points and let’s see where it takes us.
“They can all look at the league tables. I’m sure they were all looking, once Plymouth were deducted 10 points, to see where we were so they need no reminders from me. I want them to concentrate on the game and go all out to get the three points.”
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
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It’s definitely this kind of approach from Deano that has got the lads focussed in the right way and going out and playing football.
Another big game tomorrow but it’s just another one as he says and I think he’s got that kind of thinking through to the players and you can see it in how they are enjoying the games now.
Great signing today in Emmannuel Ledesma too. I saw a few games he played for QPR on sky a couple of years ago and he is very skillful and should get us a few goals from midfield so a more than decent replacement for Gill.
Come on you Saddlers! Onwards and upwards.
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