Dean Smith: A 'terrific' victory for Walsall

Romaine Sawyers' first-half goal saw the Saddlers become the first away team to win at the Highbury Stadium since February.

And Smith could not have been happier with the performance, saying: "I am delighted, I thought the performance was terrific.

"For 80 minutes we were in total control but they threw the kitchen sink at us at the end.

"We managed to keep a clean sheet but we should have put the game to bed earlier.

"We worked the ball really well from side to side and when the lads play like that it shows we're a team to be reckoned with."

Sawyers pounced on poor defending by the hosts to rifle home a left-footed shot from the edge of the area ten minutes before half-time.

The Saddlers largely controlled proceedings, but were indebted to goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell.

His smart save kept out Stephen Dobbie in the final ten minutes, while Paul Downing cleared a Martin Paterson shot off the line.

Smith added: "Romaine took his goal really well, I'm really pleased for him.

"He didn't have his best game last time against Shrewsbury by his standards and he knew that. But he was very important today.

"A lot of teams try to stop us playing it into him but allows us to get our full-backs forward and they were both excellent today.

"Romaine is a terrific footballer and we know he let his level drop in the last match. It was unlike him but I spoke to him in the week and he's bounced back really well."

He went on: "It should have been more, I though 1-0 flattered Fleetwood a little bit but that's credit to our players and credit to them for coming back from a defeat in the week.

"We've had a lot of good performances, let's not lose sight of that. We made a couple of changes but the players were great, their application to the job at hand was fantastic.

"We had a great balance about us today, which was good. What I liked was the players knew when it was there to go for it and when it wasn't.

"And when we did push forward other players were there to cover."