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Elijah Adebayo proving Walsall 'progression'

Elijah Adebayo is proving his 'progression' after netting his first brace in professional football in Walsall's 3-1 win over Exeter.

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The striker came off the bench to bag the winning goals for the Saddlers, making it three consecutive games where Adebayo has put in an impressive performance.

The 22-year-old believes this purple patch is a product of his hard work off the pitch.

"It does show the progression," he said.

"Marcus (Stewart) has been saying to me 'when are you going to get two in one game' – obviously the second one is fortunate but you have to be in the right place at the right time.

"Now it's about progressing even more and getting on the scoresheet more frequently.

"You can see Flash (Josh Gordon) has worked hard and he gets his goals more consistently.

"It's about working hard and the goals are the reward."

Leading scorer Josh Gordon is now on 12 goals, while Caolan Lavery and Adebayo have 10 and eight respectively and the latter says the bond between the trio is strong – while adding that he wants to catch Gordon's tally.

"We all get on, me Lavs and Flash and we all have different aspects of our game that we bring to the team," Adebayo added.

"It's a good race, Flash is ahead and I've told him I'm going to catch him but he doesn't think so.

"We all get on and know what we have to do, we know we're doing it for the team.

"If someone isn't doing it, someone else will come on and do it - there's a good bond between us three."

Meanwhile, manager Darrell Clarke revealed that Adebayo would have missed the Stevenage game last week if it wasn't postponed after the striker injured his ankle in training but after the break, Adebayo says he is fighting fit again.

"I feel fit, I just rolled my ankle and it was a bit sore – I felt that Saturday (against Stevenage) would have been a bit soon for me," he said.

"I've had a week to recover and prepare and that's the reason I was on the bench.

"That's what it is in football, you come on and affect the game however you can.

"The ankle is fine."