Jon Whitney: Walsall have the momentum

Boss Jon Whitney believes back-to-back wins over Shrewsbury and Fleetwood have given his side the momentum needed to win automatic promotion.

The Saddlers travel to Port Vale on Sunday, knowing a victory together with a defeat for Burton at Doncaster could see them win automatic promotion to the Championship.

Whitney's side enter the game in good form, having responded to defeat at Bradford by beating Midlands rivals Shrewsbury and relegation-threatened Fleetwood.

Now they head to North Staffordshire with the potential to enter the history books and Whitney believes their recent good form will help them overhaul Nigel Clough's Brewers.

The interim boss said: "The most pleasing for me is that we can still do it – we have taken this right to the last game.

"We are hungry now, I said to the players 'winning doesn't make winners happy, it makes them hungry.' We have secured two good wins and now we have to build on that.

"We have a bit of momentum, we are on a crest of a wave and we are going to see if we can carry that forward to achieve automatic promotion.

"If we have to make do with the play-offs because Burton win that's fine. But we can't leave anything to chance.

"Let's not leave it to a bad referee decision or a last-minute goal. Let's just go and control our own destiny and see where it takes us."

Despite being intent on winning promotion automatically, Whitney admitted he has stared to make plans in case Walsall do enter the play-offs.

The 45-year-old continued: "I have to plan for it, I don't want to but it can't be a surprise for us.

"Plan B and plan C are both planned but we are still fully committed to plan A because we can still determine how that ends."

One of the big pluses to come out of Monday's victory against the Cod Army was Romaine Sawyers ending his six-month goal drought with a perfectly-placed low drive.

And Whitney revealed he has been doing a lot of work with the St Kitts & Nevis international to ensure he plays higher up the pitch.

He added: "It was a great strike from Rom. We said in the build-up we have to get someone up there with Tom (Bradshaw) because I think he can be quite isolated at times.

"It's important we pressed with a high line and got Romaine up there with Tom.

"Credit to Rom. I think everyone says he needs to score more goals but he always put in a shift, he covers a lot of ground which sometimes goes unnoticed. He deserved that goal."