Dean Smith thrilled as Blades are blunted

Dean Smith today hailed Walsall's shock win over Sheffield United as his best ever result as boss.

The Saddlers stunned the League One promotion chasers with a thrilling 3-2 win at the Banks's Stadium last night to lift them out of the drop zone.

It extended their unbeaten run to five games, leaving them two places and two points above the bottom four, and Smith underlined the importance of the victory.

He said: "It was a great result, I'd go as far as to say it's the best result in my management career because of the players they've got at their disposal.

"The disappointing part was we conceded two goals but we'll take the points and we're at the business end of the season where it's all about getting the points.

"The second half was a fantastic game and some of the goals we scored were fantastic as well. It was a pleasure to watch us at times – and against one of the best teams in the league with excellent players."

All the goals came in 26 mad second-half minutes with Sam Mantom scoring on his debut after signing on loan from Albion yesterday.

Lee Williamson and Ched Evans made it 2-2 after Jon Macken fired the Saddlers 2-1 ahead before Alex Nicholls' header nine minutes from time won it.

And Smith praised his men's character after they refused to buckle despite losing the lead twice.

He said: "We've spoken about it with the players, about their reaction, and we're a squad of players and a team who always stay in the game. It's why we don't get beaten by more than one goal very often when we do lose."

But the Saddlers are sweating on the fitness of Richard Taundry and Jamie Paterson after the pair limped off during the game.

Smith added: "It looks like Richard's got a slight hamstring strain and we won't know (how bad) until we assess it. Jamie got a kick to the ankle and it swelled up at half time and we wanted to see how it went.

"Taunds has done fantastically at right-back and had been a mainstay of a defence which had only conceded one goal in four games up until last night but I thought Lee Beevers came on and did well."