Northampton v Walsall - Match preview

Tuesday night’s transfer deadline passed without the return of the Mansfield Town striker, who scored 15 goals during a superb six-month loan spell at the Poundland Bescot Stadium.

Undeterred by Mansfield’s ‘extortionate fee which nobody will pay’ – in Flynn’s words – the Saddlers quickly moved on to other options and found another loanee with his own tremendous goal record.

And tomorrow’s trip to fourth-placed Northampton Town will be Matty Stevens’ first opportunity to show the Saddlers faithful – 864 tickets had been sold to the travellers as of yesterday – that he could be the man to fire them into the League Two promotion picture.

Stevens certainly has the pedigree to be that man – he scored 27 goals as Forest Green Rovers as they went on to become League Two champions last season. However, that campaign ended with a serious knee injury that ruled him out all the way until Boxing Day.

Five substitute appearances and one start since then, as well as Forest Green’s decision to loan out last season’s top goalscorer for the rest of this campaign, suggests some patience will be required as Stevens gets fully up to speed. But what the Saddlers do have now is the strike force that fired Rovers to that title triumph last year.

Stevens may have scored 27 goals of them, but Jamille Matt – another January signing at the Bescot – also chipped in with 20 of his own.

Matt made his Saddlers debut at Salford without notching, and will hope being reunited with former amateur boxer Stevens will add a bit of punch to the front line.

The Saddlers will need to come out of their corner swinging as they look to make up the ground lost while they contended with a run to the fourth round of the FA Cup and the icy weather. They are now 14th – though with as many three games in hand on the 13 sides above them.

Northampton may be fourth, 12 points clear of the Saddlers, but a Walsall victory on Saturday coupled with two games in hand won would reduce that gap to three.

And that would really raise the optimism around the Bescot after a week of fluctuating emotions.

Flynn was visibly frustrated with the pursuit of Johnson after the Leicester game last weekend – Walsall co-chairman Ben Boycott also called it ‘simply impossible’ to reach a ‘reasonable agreement’.

That frustration had turned to an air of relief by Tuesday night as Stevens was announced just after the Salford defeat within the final hour of the window – Flynn thrilled he had got someone who had ‘shown real hunger and a desire’ to play for Walsall.

But should Stevens hit the ground running at Sixfields tomorrow, those emotions will soon all make way for plenty of hope that this really could be a season to remember for everyone of a Saddlers persuasion.