Adam Chambers: Walsall survival nothing to celebrate

But Walsall skipper Adam Chambers doesn’t believe avoiding relegation is a reason to celebrate.

The Saddlers take on Fleetwood tomorrow for what is their final game of the 2017/18 campaign.

And after securing a draw at Bradford on Tuesday, they travel knowing either Oldham or Rochdale will join Northampton, MK Dons and Bury in League Two next year.

But while Chambers is relieved to be heading Highbury with safety confirmed, he won’t be looking back on the season as a success.

“Personally I am not happy with how the season has gone,” the 37-year-old said.

“It seems a little bit wrong to be celebrating staying up.

“You want to be fighting at the other end of the table.

“But with the situation we found ourselves in, surviving had to be the target for the last few games.

“We have got that now. But we need to look forward to next season and make sure we are not in the same situation.

“I don’t know what the gaffer and the board have got planned but you’d imagine there will be changes.

“We have shown this year we have been very inconsistent. We need to make a few changes to ensure we are pushing higher up the table.”

Despite being disappointed with the campaign as a whole, Chambers admits it is a luxury to be able to travel to Fleetwood without needed a result.

“It’s great to go there with the pressure off,” he continued.

“If we hadn’t got a result at Bradford it would have been very nervy.

“You’d be looking at other results and we’d still need a point.

“You’re biting your nails and it’s sleepless nights.

“Now the pressure is off. We can go into the game, relax and look forward to a new season starting.”

Despite Walsall’s troubles this year, Chambers believes their performance at Bradford shows how the team has improved defensively over the past few weeks.

“We knew we needed a point before the game so we would have taken a boring nil-nil,” the captain added.

“It was probably a little bit too eventful, certainly more than we liked.

“But in the end, we got the result we needed.

“For the most part we defended well. They had one chance when Charlie Wyke fired over in the second half.

“But we do feel we are now a tighter unit.

“We have had a couple of clean sheets recently and we have improved in certain games.

“But again there has been inconsistencies and we have let in some sloppy goals.

“That’s what we need to improve on for next year.”