McDonald sounds Walsall battle cry

Walsall defender Clayton McDonald has sounded a battle cry despite admitting their eight game winless streak is playing on his mind.

The Saddlers fought out a dull goalless draw with Bristol Rovers on Saturday to leave them stuck in 13th place in League One, five points above the drop zone.

It was a third consecutive stalemate and, although they missed five weeks due to the big freeze, the Saddlers haven't won since December – a run which rankles with McDonald.

He said: "We want to push on, but it feels hard at the moment. We're not making excuses, we're getting on with it and we want to win but it feels like we need a lucky break.

"It's three unbeaten and we're going to go for it. We've got to be men, stick our chests out, put our shoulders back and go for it.

"Its tight, it's very tight. We don't have to worry about where we are, as long as we start winning our games we'll be fine."

The 21-year-old expects the Saddlers to find their form quickly, ahead of the return clash at Bristol Rovers tomorrow.

He said: "We're not losing, we just need a win and once we do that our tails will be up. The lads who came in did well.

"One day it will drop for us and we might beat a team four or five nil."

With the teams facing-off at the Memorial Ground tomorrow, McDonald is targeting a second clean sheet after keeping the Pirates out on Saturday.

He said: "We don't want to concede, it's an insult to concede, we want to keep clean sheets. Doing that means we can win games. The way we've been playing and the fact we kept a clean sheet meant we deserved to win.

"At times we played some good football, they only had one or two chances and even though we didn't have many ours were more clean cut."

McDonald almost won it for Walsall on Saturday, when his injury time header clattered off the bar.

He said: "It's frustrating because I got a clean connection but it hit the bar. There were a lot of positives. Everyone did well."