Adam Chambers: Anything can happen at Walsall
Adam Chambers insists there is still a long way to go in the race for automatic promotion as Walsall prepare for must-win games against Fleetwood and Port Vale.
The Saddlers kept alive their dreams of finishing in League One's top two with a 2-1 victory over West Midlands rivals Shrewsbury on Tuesday night.
That result was the ideal response to the 4-0 loss at Bradford and leaves Jon Whitney's side three points behind second-placed Burton Albion with two games still to play.
Nigel Clough's side return to action on Saturday when they host a Gillingham side fighting to reclaim a spot in the play-offs.
Walsall, meanwhile, entertain Fleetwood on Monday with Steven Pressley's men battling to stay in the division. And Chambers believes everything is still to play for.
"Anything can happen in football," the Saddlers skipper said.
"Things can often look done and dusted but, as we have seen, it can all change very quickly.
"I imagine we will have to win our next two games to give ourselves any chance of automatic promotion.
"We know what is at stake and we know we need to come out and match the tempo we showed against Shrewsbury when we face Fleetwood on Monday.
"Fleetwood have got a lot to play for so it's not going to be an easy game even though they are towards the bottom of the table.
"At their place they gave us a good game, they are a decent footballing side.
"But we know we've got to do our part and win our next two games – then we'll see what happens from there."
Walsall entered the Shrewsbury clash with Whitney having demanded a response following the 4-0 drubbing handed to them at Valley Parade.
The derby was the Saddlers' sixth game in the space of just 18 days with Chambers delighted with the reaction the team showed.
"We knew we had to win," the 35-year-old said. "In the first half we were back to near our best and it was more what we are about. It was a disappointing result at Bradford and we spoke about wanting to bounce back and I thought we did that.
"It was one of those games where we knew they had a lot to play for because they are trying to stay up and we just knew we had to come out of the blocks firing."
Chambers admitted the manner of the defeat against Phil Parkinson's Bantams hurt the Walsall squad.
"We are a confident group and we do get disappointed when we don't perform – especially at this stage of the season," he added.
"We know what we are playing for – what we've done this year and what is at stake.
"But we do tend to bounce back from defeats and we did that again against Shrewsbury.
"In the second half they grew into the game more and we would have liked to have had more control.
"But we still looked a threat going forward.
"They got the goal back, kicking towards their fans, we knew we were going to have to dig deep to keep them out so that was the pleasing thing, that we held on, as well."
