Walsall boss Michael Flynn has one eye on next season

With 11 games left, Walsall still have plenty of football left to play, but Flynn says part of his job is to plan ahead for the next season.

He said: “The first priority is to give the fans some goals and some wins as they have been great with us and patient through the poor run.

“But of course there is planning ahead – I am constantly in touch with Benjamin (Boycott) and Leigh (Pomlett) over budgets and ideas.

“We have a good team running the club with those two, Stefan (Gamble) and Dan (Mole), they all bring a lot to the table

“We work well together and although I am employed to pick a team for the next game I have to look at the bigger picture as well.

“That means planning for next season and analysing who is going to be available both on the current staff and from the outside.”

Flynn rued the injury situation this season, which he estimates has seen more than 30 per cent of his total budget sidelined. He said: “It has been an absolute disaster, I make no apologies for bringing that up again, although it happens at all clubs, Liverpool and Manchester City have seen it for example.

“The difference is they are at the top level and can cope with it plus they have bigger squads.

“I do feel if we had those players available or more of them had been out for a shorter time, we would have been higher up the table.”

But Flynn said he would put all thoughts of the past aside as Walsall returned back to Bescot for their second home game in a week.

He said: “We will be doing our best to win as many games as we can in the rest of the season and gain some momentum towards the next one.

“To do that we need to create more chances and not just rely on one – the performances have been solid apart from Stevenage and Barrow where we didn’t deserve anything.

“But they haven’t been very creative which is why we haven’t scored many goals recently and that needs to be addressed.”