Skipper Donervon Daniels happy with Walsall foundations

David Okagbue, Priestley Farquharson and Daniels have started seven of the last eight league games together.

Daniels has started every league match for the Saddlers this term, and has played alongside no fewer than six different defenders.

But the recent changes at the back have contributed to a run of five wins from eight games (one draw, two losses) in League Two, and Daniels is eager to maintain the standards that have been set of late.

He said: “We’ve got a really good foundation with myself, Priestley, Dave, Coms (Brandon Comley) and Owen (Evans) coming back in.

“We want to pride ourselves on clean sheets so it was frustrating to concede, especially from that long throw because we worked on it.

“We’re a tough team for anybody but we want to impose our style of play because I know that teams can’t live with us when we do.

“There is (growing continuity in the back line) and long may it continue. We’ve built a relationship there.

“Now, we need to stay on that and keep demanding from each other because that’s something I bang on about with the boys.

“Even though I don’t feel like there is any back-three or back-line better than we’ve got in this division, there are going to be good attackers that we come up against so we’ve got to be at our best.”

Daniels opened his goal scoring account for the season with a superb strike into the top corner in Walsall’s 1-1 draw against Sutton United at Bescot on Saturday.

This season, the Walsall skipper has played at the heart of a three-man defence, on the left of a back-four, and is now thriving with a more offensive role on the left of a back-three.

On his free roaming defensive role, Daniels revealed: “I’ve wanted to get involved a lot more offensively and the gaffer has put me on the side of the pitch where a lot of teams don’t know which side I am going to come out from because I can play on the left or the right.

“It feels good personally to get on the score sheet because I’ve had quite a few chances throughout the season and I’ll be ultra critical of myself that I should’ve scored more.

“I just want to stay on top of my own performances because that’s the most important thing and to keep contributing to the team whether that’s defensively or offensively.”