Decisons loom on Danny Webber and Billy Clifford at Walsall

Forward Webber has been with the Saddlers for much of pre-season and the manager confirmed he will be sitting down with the 32-year-old tomorrow to discuss his future.

"Dan will come in on Thursday and I will have a chat with him and make a decision, to make it fair for him," said Smith.

"He played in games early on in pre-season and I did not quite see what I wanted at first and I told him that. He said 'let me have a go' and we will make a decision from there."

Smith – who is still hopeful of striking a deal for French striker Mathieu Manset – looks likely to wait until Friday before speaking to midfielder Clifford, who impressed during last night's 1-0 friendly defeat to Villa.

The 21-year-old was released by Chelsea at the end of the season and joined up with the Saddlers last week.

Smith had not been looking for a permanent midfield signing, but admitted Clifford ticked many of the boxes.

"He is the right age of us in terms of us bringing in players to develop them," he said. "He is one who has been at Chelsea for a long time and went on loan last season at Colchester and we will continue looking at him for the rest of the week."

Smith was boosted by the return of Sam Mantom in last night's game. The Saddlers player of the season had not played a minute in pre-season due to a knee ligament problem but replaced Clifford for the final half-hour and could feature when a Walsall XI visit Chasetown tonight.

An Alan Hutton goal handed Villa the win but Smith was impressed by the way his team fared against their Premier League neighbours.

"I thought in the first half in particular we did well," he said. "We took the game to them and played some really good stuff.

"The only disappointment was the goal, I thought it was a sloppy goal from our point of view – it was a free-kick and we left Hutton free at the far post."