Dean Smith eyeing a dream trip to Wembley
Boss Dean Smith today urged Walsall to target Trophy glory as the Saddlers look to end their Wembley woes.
They host Port Vale in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy tonight after back-to-back home defeats hit their League One campaign.
The Saddlers have never appeared at Wembley and Smith wants his men to put down a marker and draw on their League Cup experience.
He said: "What we want to do is progress in every competition we're in. At the moment we're 11th in the league so we should be 11th favourites to win the Johnstone's Paint Trophy," he said, ahead of the second-round clash.
"We'll give it a go. We've not had great runs in the competition so far and we've got a tough one against Port Vale who are going really well.
"Just winning the League Cup game against Brentford and going to QPR was fantastic for the players, not just the players but supporters as well. We pitted our wits against, on the day, a fantastic team which they put out. I thought we played some good stuff in that."
The Saddlers are looking to respond after Liam Noble's last-minute strike saw Carlisle snatch a 2-1 victory on Saturday.
And Smith believes they will have learned their lessons from the defeat, the second in a week after last Tuesday's 2-1 reverse against Leyton Orient.
n Walsall have been handed a trip to Vale in the FA Youth Cup first round. The tie is on October 29 with tickets £5 for adults and £2 for concessions.
