Walsall boss Matt Taylor 'extremely happy' with EFL Trophy win
Boss Matt Taylor believes Walsall are undergoing a 'shift' in confidence after making it four games unbeaten in all competitions.
The Saddlers kicked off their EFL Trophy campaign with a 1-0 win over Brighton Under-21s at the Banks's Stadium, with Kieran Phillips grabbing the goal.
That triumph puts them top of Southern Group D at this early stage, while they are also three without defeat in League Two.
And Taylor said on beating the young Seagulls: "I'm extremely happy.
"We'll play better and lose. There's lots of ways to win football matches.
"We should have scored more goals, but I feel there's a shift at the moment at this club.
"There's a shift in the dressing room with the players' confidence.
"I'm really excited to see where they can take that with each other.
"So, we have momentum going into Saturday against Newport."
Phillips poked home on the stroke of half-time against Brighton, who had Gary Dicker sent off in the second half.
The visitors started brightly but Walsall were comfortable from the half-hour mark onwards.
"We paid them far too much respect early on," said Taylor.
"They're exceptionally gifted footballers and move the ball so well.
"I said before the game I thought they'd control the game with the ball, and they did.
"But the reason they did was because we were too deep.
"We needed to be higher and more aggressive and from the 30-minute mark, there was only one team that was going to win it."
Taylor added: "We picked a strong team to win the game, and they've done that.
"So, I'm really happy as that's four games where we're unbeaten. What we've got to do now is build on that."
