Adam Chambers: Walsall need to focus

Defeat at Oldham on Saturday saw the Saddlers fall to back-to-back defeats in the league for the first time since February 2015 – with the result seeing them drop to sixth in the table.

But tonight they head to Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, knowing victory will see them leapfrog the Gills and move back up to third.

The winner of this evening's clash will put themselves in a strong position to hunt down second-placed Burton, with the loser likely to have to make do with a place in the play-offs.

While the Saddlers aren't entering it in the best form, Chambers believes they need to forget the defeats against Oldham and Sheffield United and start afresh.

He said: "We we're disappointed with the result against Oldham but we can't afford to be bogged down because we've now got a big game at Gillingham.

"We still believe and we still have a lot of confidence in ourselves so we just need to keep going. It's important we now get back to winning ways.

"We are looking forward to tonight's game, we are looking forward to putting on a performance and winning three points."

Walsall enjoyed 62 per cent possession and had 10 shots in their 1-0 loss at Boundary Park on Saturday.

But, despite the Saddlers seeing more of the ball, Chambers felt his side didn't do enough to win the game.

He said: "I think in patches we played well and created a couple of chances but overall probably not enough to win the game.

"We knew it was going to be difficult despite their league position as they are on a good run.

"The style of football they play, percentage football, we knew they might get a chance here and there but I think we kept them down to very little.

"But we didn't create enough chances ourselves. We had a few here and there but, with the possession we had, we probably didn't create enough.

"We were trying to push but we couldn't really create any clear-cut chances."

The Saddlers experimented against John Sheridan's side with a new 4-3-3 formation that gave the likes of Romaine Sawyers, Anthony Forde and Jordy Hiwula licence to roam around the pitch.

And Chambers believes being able to switch between systems will be crucial for the Saddlers as they continue in the run-in.

He continued: "We did a lot of work about how we were going to play against Oldham.

"We wanted to try to get the ball wide as they play quite narrow. I thought we did that well at times. At times we played well, we created chances and we had good possession of the ball.

"Changing formations is something we've done all season. The lads are very adaptable, whatever formation we play.

"We've got good options throughout the squad to play different formations and it's something that keeps the opposition guessing.

"We're all comfortable playing in any formation we're asked to, but now we need to be winning games.

"The last few games of the season, we've really got to push to get where we want to be."