A selection of stats just about sum up 2011 for Walsall

There are lies, damn lies and statistics and, as Walsall end a tumultuous 2011 with the visit of Rochdale, there are several stats which can be reeled off with ease.

Four league wins all season, the second lowest scorers in League One or that, crucial, one about beating the drop by a solitary point in May.

But, the one which means the most to the Saddlers is their current run of just one normal time defeat in their last 10 games.

Glossing over the wretched FA Cup penalty loss to Dagenham, the Saddlers have begun to string together a set of results which have eluded them all season.

It is – unsurprisingly – their best sequence all year but the fact that they are only 18th in League One, a point above the drop zone, owes much to their other run of just two wins in 17 games.

That is one they are keen to ignore and Mat Sadler insisted their current, more favourable, record has inspired a new-found belief.

He said: "There's a definite air of confidence about the place where, all of a sudden, people have thought 'hold on a minute, we're better than what we've shown here.'

"That comes from winning games – confidence is bred from winning games. Good teams can win a game without playing well – but they'll win. We haven't been like that and we want to become that sort of a team.

"You know in football all that matters is Saturday and making sure we move forward. One game won't change the season because we need that momentum.

"It will be tough, it wll be blood and thunder and the pitch takes it out of your legs so you'll be tired. It'll be a real battle tomorrow, but one we're ready for and one we have to come out on top of.

"We're not the biggest team in the league or the smallest team, but the thing you can't label at us is that we haven't got a will to win. We've got a will to do well for each other and we want to be successful.

"Things happen in football which means you lose games or you pick up points when you shouldn't do, but I don't think anyone can say we don't want to win."

That determination won through in Monday's 2-1 late show against Sheffield Wednesday, as Claude Gnakpa and Manny Smith scored in injury time to lift the Saddlers out of the League One drop zone.

It was from Sadler's free kick that Smith netted the winner and the 27-year-old insisted the squad are still on a high from the result – although the former Birmingham left-back admitted finding the late drama bizarre.

He said: "We all enjoyed it. It was fantastic. It was lovely, you tend to watch games like that as opposed to playing in them so it was nice to be a part of it.

"We deserved a bit of luck and it all came together in the last couple of minutes. It was surreal in the fact I didn't really know what to do after the final whistle.

"I got off the pitch sharpish but probably should have stayed out there and soaked it up a bit more. We deserved our rewards for persevering and for not letting our heads drop.

"Confidence is massive in football and everyone has turned up early this week because we're desperate to be here. We haven't really had that in the last few months.

"At times, it's been tough but we have to look forward and push on."

Kevan Hurst, who scored in the 1-1 Johnstone's Paint Trophy draw at Spotland in October which the Saddlers lost on penalties, could return to the squad tomorrow after two months out with a broken bone in his heel.

Oliver Lancashire is out with a hamstring injury.