Jamie Paterson is inspired by Dean Smith's vision

Jamie Paterson today vowed Walsall will stick to their guns and never ditch their style if the going gets tough.

The young Saddlers are favourites for the League One drop but have impressed after a bright start to the season.

They have lost just one of their opening four games – despite tossing away a two-goal lead with four minutes left to draw 2-2 with Brentford on Saturday.

And forward Paterson said they will always keep faith with boss Dean Smith's philosophy.

"We have good footballers – we are not exactly a big side so playing football is imperative for us," he said. "We can play both formations, with the two up front we can look to play off them from us lads out wide.

"George (Bowerman) makes good runs during the game and it's good to have two up front, there's more options on the ball.

"As a team, we have adapted well, we are looking decent playing both ways and that's a positive."

The 20-year-old bagged his first goal of the season in Saturday's draw after being handed the No.10 shirt.

And he wants to repay Smith's faith after the manager brought him through the youth ranks.

He said: "I was happy with the goal but the result put a dampener on things, to be honest. That said, it wasn't a loss and it extends our unbeaten League run.

"From a personal point of view, I want to use this as a springboard to get more goals now and push us up the table.

"The gaffer was my youth team manager, so I know he's got a lot of faith in me and I want to repay him.

"He has faith and that's positive for me when I am out there."