Cuvelier: Football will save Saddlers

Florent Cuvelier will never change his game – and he expects his Walsall team-mates to follow suit.

The Belgian goes into tonight's clash with Colchester vowing to keep the Saddlers up the only way he knows how – by passing his way out of trouble.

Just one defeat in their last nine games has renewed hope of avoiding the League One drop despite the Saddlers slipping back into the bottom four. Just 10 points separate the bottom eight and Stoke loanee Cuvelier declared, after a bruising 1-1 draw with Stevenage, he and the team will stick to their principals to survive.

"It's very important. We have the ability in the team to pass the ball and we have created some good chances by playing football," he said.

"We have scored a few lovely goals and we just need to keep playing the same football and not changing anything.

"I don't think we really need to change anything. We are playing some good stuff and at the back we are strong. We just need to that bit of luck that other teams have had against us.

"But I think we are a good team and we don't need to change that much."

And the 19-year-old insisted the survival scrap should be a platform for the players to prove themselves.

"For every single one of us it's a good chance to show we deserve to be in League One and we have the ability to do it," he said.

"I just use that as a boost to say 'if you think we deserve to go down, I'm going to show you that you're wrong'."

Cuvelier has formed a fine bond in midfield with Albion loanee Sam Mantom as the young duo – 19 and 20 respectively – battle at the wrong end of League One.

And the Belgian believes playing with his Dudley-born team-mate has come naturally after they hit it off from the start.

"It's good to play with Sam. He's very confident on the ball and can pick good passes," he said.

"I like to go forwards and he likes to sit so it's a good combination. I had never played against him so I didn't know him. But we had a few conversations and we get on well."

The pair could come under pressure from fit-again Adam Chambers who has shaken off an ankle infection while Richard Taundry could return after a hamstring injury.

But after another draw against Stevenage on Saturday Cuvelier knows the Saddlers are entering must-win territory. They have won three times during their revival, with five draws and one defeat and the midfielder admits there is no margin for error.

"We don't want to draw and we absolutely don't want to lose. We just want to win," he said. "But we cannot put too much pressure on ourselves, we just need to get focused."

Colchester have drawn their last five after Saturday's 1-1 draw with Carlisle to stay six points outside the play-off spots. And right-back Brian Wilson admitted the Us' confidence was hit after James Berrett cancelled out Martin Rowlands' opener on Saturday.

"I think it felt more like a defeat than a win and the last few games have been like that," he said.

"We've drawn too many games but of the five, I think we've deserved to win at least two or three. Had we won that it would have put us right up there."