James O'Connor: Walsall have learnt lessons from last year

The Saddlers endured an inconsistent 2016/17 campaign with Jon Whitney's side on the brink of the play-offs in March before eventually stumbling to a 14th place finish in League One.

Now the squad is gearing up for the new season which kicks off with a trip to Bury.

And O'Connor is anticipating a more consistent campaign with the squad having learnt from the highs and lows of last year.

"Last season was a big learning curve,” he said.

"It wasn’t the most ideal of circumstances to go into the season with a new squad. We had a big turnaround and it made it tough at times – but those tough times should stand us in good stead moving forward.

“Sometimes you can learn more from difficult times and hopefully that will be the case. There were some good points last year and some bad points – it was a mixed bag.

“But you can always learn from the experience and as a team, and as individuals, it’s important we do that.

“We’ve got to learn from our mistakes, and learn from the good things we did as well, and take it all into next year.”

O'Connor will be part of the Saddlers squad that reports for pre-season training on Monday.

But the defender revealed he and his team mates having been doing what they can to maintain their fitness in the close season.

“We’ve all kept ticking over during the close season to keep ourselves in decent shape,” O’Connor added.

“The way the game is now, gone are the days when players would go away, put a couple of stone on and drink themselves senseless!

"It’s all in moderation now. To give yourself the best chance of doing well, getting off to a flier and maintaining good levels throughout the year, it’s important you look after yourself.”