Express & Star

Chris Marsh: Saddlers show heart to climb of canvas

Watching Walsall is like watching a Rocky film at the minute...writes Saddlers legend Chris Marsh

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I honestly thought the Saddlers were going to be sucked into a relegation scrap following last Saturday’s loss against Gillingham.

But just like Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, this team seems to be able to fight back and get a result when you least expect it.

For that you have got to give them credit and I actually thought they played very well in the win over Fleetwood on Tuesday.

It was an open game. I don’t think Uwe Rolser’s side are as strong as they were last season.

But Walsall were the better team and deserved the points because they took their chances.

They were clinical. And it’s that ruthlessness in the box that now needs to continue because performances since that dreadful loss at Newport County have been decent.

Against Gillingham, Jon Whitney’s men were again the better side but they couldn’t find a way to score and that is the only statistic that matters.

After that game there was a lot of talk about how much possession they had enjoyed.

But for me, we can get too bogged down in numbers.

You often hear how many kilometres a player has covered in a game. But if they have misplaced seven out of 10 passes it really doesn’t matter how far they have run.

Look at Alan Shearer, he barely moved out the box. His distance-covered stats wouldn’t be great.

But he is the all-time leading scorer in the Premier League because he knew where the goal was.

Football is all about the feel you have for a game. Sometimes you can just sense that a player isn’t going to score or is at risk of making a mistake.

It’s a game of emotion so after the Gillingham game the only statistic that mattered was the result. For that reason, I think the players did really well to bounce back against Fleetwood.

They knew going into the game that, if they fell behind, the atmosphere was likely to get hostile.

But they delivered a performance and I’d like to give a special mention to Liam Kinsella, who I think has been fantastic over the past few weeks.

OK, he made that mistake against against Gillingham, but all young players make errors.

And he responded against Fleetwood. He is a player who has been at the club since he was seven and he gives his all every week.

His dad was also a very good player so it’s great to see him doing so well.

Now it’s on to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday, which is another big opportunity to pick up three points.

But it’s not just on the field where things are busy. December is just one week away and that means the loans of Zeli Ismail, Dan Agyei and Tyler Roberts are up in just over a month.

I think it’s going to be very hard to keep Roberts.

But Walsall need to do everything in their power to keep all three at the club.

Their contribution this season has been crucial and you’d think with them in the squad Walsall will score enough goals to keep themselves out the drop zone.

If they do all go back to their parent clubs, however, replacing them will be very difficult.