Paul Downing: Walsall can do it without Dean Smith

The centre-back, who scored his first goal of the season in the 3-1 win at Shrewsbury, says it's business as usual at for the Saddlers despite the departure of their popular boss and his assistant Richard O'Kelly.

Smith was the fourth longest-serving manager in the country before he decided to leave the Banks's to take over the reigns at Championship outfit Brentford.

But despite the boss enjoying a fantastic relationship with his players, Downing says they have put the manager's departure behind them to focus on promotion.

"Dean Smith did a great job at Walsall and it's sad to see him go but that is football," the 24-year-old said.

"As footballers, we have to get on with our job. We wished him all the best and that's the end of it – we get back to work.

"The aim is still promotion, that is what we want to do and nothing is going to stop us trying to achieve that.

"I think the result against Shrewsbury will shut up some of the doubters. Everyone expected us to lose but we didn't, we won. And now we haven't got that monkey on our back. We can win without the manager. We are always going to give teams problems with the players we have."

As well as being without a manager, Walsall also secured victory at Greenhous Meadow despite losing star striker Tom Bradshaw to injury and falling a goal behind to Larnell Cole's 41st-minute opener.

And it's that character which vice-captain Downing feels epitomises the side.

"The character of the team was another point we wanted to ram home in the Shrewsbury game," he said.

"We have shown already this season in games like the Gillingham fixture and Brighton that we can come back when we go behind. We will have to carry that on this season because you're not always going to go ahead in a game.

"That character was important and Milan Lalkovic's goal just before the break came at an important time.

"We have got belief though, that is the big thing this season.

"We have got belief that we can always score goals.

"The Shrewsbury result sent a clear signal to the other teams in the league.

"Teams would have been looking at us, expecting us to slip up. When changes happen, some teams start making excuses.

"But we didn't want to do that. We wanted to keep the form going."

Downing revealed the players and Smith parted company following an emotional goodbye on Monday.

But he said attentions then quickly moved to the upcoming games.

"Dean and Richard had been at the club a long time and were a big part of the football club and the football club's success," the defender added.

"But things move on. They have moved and we move on.

"We have got our own objectives as a club. We wish them all the best but we quickly switch out focus to Tuesday's game and we put in a performance.

"If anything it helped having a game so quick. We had to concentrate on the game and now we look forward to the FA Cup on Saturday."