Jon Macken wants more shock wins

Match-winner Jon Macken has insisted Walsall have stunned their critics and believes their shock Southampton success can be the springboard to survival.

The striker ended the Saddlers' drop zone woes with the winner in last night's stunning 1-0 victory – their first over the Saints since 1955.

It moved them out of the bottom four for the first time since October and sent them above Swindon ahead of Saturday's crunch showdown at the County Ground.

And Macken reckons last night's rearguard action – where the Saddlers came under constant pressure – can provide the platform to escape the League One trapdoor.

He said: "It's going to be an unbelievable achievement and it's going to be difficult but we believe we can do it.

"Just getting out of the bottom four is a big achievement because at one point everyone was writing us off, we were looking at things and it was getting worse game after game but we can see the light now.

"We've put performances in but we've got to continue it, build on it and try and achieve something. It can be the platform, what we've got to make sure is that we build on it.

"We can see the light and we're fighting for every little scrap, hopefully we'll come away with the results to keep us up sooner rather than later."

But, despite his winner, the striker reserved the plaudits for goalkeeper Jimmy Walker who made a string of stunning stops – including a point blank stop from Jose Fonte.

Macken said: "Jimmy was unbelievable, he pulled me out once because Fonte got a run on me from the corner and he made a great save.

"He's made some unbelievable saves, without him in certain games we could have been getting beaten by six goals.

"That's what he's like, that's how good he is. Last night we needed him and we're going to need him in a lot more games.

"Some of the saves he made were certain goals, some of their lads were celebrating but he pulled it off again."

Macken bagged just his fifth goal of the campaign after capitalising on Radhi Jaidi's mistake.

The forward said: "I needed a goal. I've had one or two chances so it's pleasing to get it.

"It was a mistake by the lad but they happen, we've been punished enough this season for mistakes so we had that bit of luck."