Walsall urged to go for the kill

Boss Dean Smith today vowed Walsall will go for the kill at Rochdale as their survival battle enters its final stages.

The Saddlers go to Spotland aiming to take a massive step to safety and hammer another nail in Dale's League One coffin.

They could move five points clear of the drop zone with a win and could leave third-bottom Dale a massive 11 points from the safety line with six games left.

And Smith insisted the Saddlers will not play for the draw with so much at stake.

"We're not safe by any means and that's what I've said to the players," he said, with the Saddlers having lost just one of their last 10 games.

"We see it as a game we have to win and we go into games wanting to win every one. I said to the players there's a difference of trying not to lose and trying to win. Trying to win is what we're all about.

"We know the players we've got are hard to beat and we've known that all season. There's not a team who have turned us over and we've thought 'they really deserved to beat us'. We've always been in there. We're tough to beat but what we've got to do is keep looking to win games."

The Dale clash is the first of two key games with relegation rivals with rock bottom Chesterfield coming to the Banks's Stadium next weekend.

But Smith, likely to be without the injured Jon Macken tomorrow, insisted he hasn't considered the Spireites' visit.

He said: "The next seven are the defining games because I've always taken each game as it comes. If you look too far ahead and say 'we've got to win the next two' then you put too much pressure on yourself. Anything can happen in a game. Why put pressure on yourself?

"The important thing is winning football games and I stressed to the players before the Colchester game (a 3-1 win on Tuesday) we weren't there not to lose, we were there to win. They could have gone under when Colchester scored early but they were brave.

"We knew it was an important game because it was our game in hand but we have another tomorrow against Rochdale who are below us."