Matt Taylor wants more bravery on the ball from Walsall

Matt Taylor feels the Saddlers set a benchmark in terms of their work out of possession at Bradford City, drawing 1-1 despite playing with 10 men for all of the second half.

And now, as Mansfield Town visit the Banks’s Stadium, he wants his players to step up on the ball, take the game to Nigel Clough’s Stags and, ideally, make it three unbeaten in League Two.

Taylor said: “First and foremost, it’ll be a difficult game for us.

“It’ll be a game where Nigel will expect his players to turn up and give a performance. He’ll demand that. So, we’ve got to be at it.

“I want us to be aggressive and take the game to Mansfield.

“The reason for that is that we’re at home. And coming off the back of the result at Bradford, where it was very much us on the back foot, I want a change in mentality.

“I want the players to be confident and approach the game in an aggressive manner – both in and out of possession.

“We have a clear structure at this club in terms of how we want to play, and I want us to be better on the ball than we have been in the last two games, albeit we’ve picked up two very good results.

“The group are capable of that, so I want to see the players to take more risks with the ball and trust each other more.

"I want to see an aggressive performance against a Mansfield team who, regardless of their last three results, have some exceptionally talented footballers.

“They’re always cited as one of the favourites, so we’ll have to be at it to get a result.”

Having drawn at Bradford and beaten Stevenage 1-0 before that, Walsall have momentum behind them.

They will be without centre-half Rollin Menayese, though, given Mansfield are his parent club. Ash Taylor is likely to come back in.

“Rollin won’t be able to play, but the players are driving each other every day,” said Taylor.

“Competition has gone up, which is great from my perspective.

“It makes the decision-making process a lot harder, but that’s what we want. If you’d have watched training (on Thursday), you might have said it was slightly close to the edge – but that’s what we want.

“We want that real competitive edge every single day, so somebody else will get an opportunity.”

Also set to miss out are skipper Joss Labadie after his dismissal at Bradford, Rory Holden (knee) and Conor Wilkinson (hamstring).

Striker George Miller, though, is looking to build on his debut display against the Bantams

Taylor added on him: “He’s integrated into the group exceptionally well. In terms of personality, he’s very confident but doesn’t overstep the mark.

“You wouldn’t know that he’s only been here a week.

“The players have taken him in, and we’re excited to see him play more football this season.”