Home hope for the Saddlers

Bullish Jamie Paterson today urged Walsall to show their bottle and cash in on vital home clashes.

The confident winger reckons the Saddlers can record key back-to-back wins starting with Stevenage on Saturday.

They are fourth from bottom in League One, a point from the safety line, but have a game in hand over their drop rivals – Colchester's visit on Tuesday.

And Paterson insisted the 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday proves Walsall can exploit home advantage.

"They are two games which are easily winnable and if we can go to Sheffield Wednesday and almost take three points we should be going into the next two wanting six," said Paterson, who scored a stunning second in Yorkshire.

"The game in hand is in our favour a little bit. It was vital we didn't lose on Tuesday because we lost at the weekend (a 2-1 defeat at Yeovil) and needed to get a run going again. On Saturday we'll go into it with a lot of confidence because of Tuesday.

"Win on Saturday and it's a very good point at Hillsborough."

But the Saddlers have drawn 17 games this season after Gary Madine's late equaliser on Tuesday and Paterson admitted they must start turning the tide.

"We just need to try to turn these little draws into victories now because they are more important," said the 20-year-old. "It's a lot of draws but we've conceded a lot of late equalisers and have been unlucky on a lot of occasions. Hopefully in the next few games it'll turn around in our favour and we can turn late draws into wins.

"I don't think the gaffer will allow us to keep our heads down. He'll get them up and be positive and we won't have a lot of thinking time so we'll be ready for Saturday."

Seventh placed Stevenage – with one win in the last eight – are still hunting the play-offs but Paterson insisted the Saddlers can continue to shock the top teams.

He said: "Those teams don't expect us to come and be as good as the teams at the top but League One is pretty level. I've played teams at the bottom and teams at the top and it's the same to me."