Mat Sadler dedicates Walsall win for special reason

That result propelled them into third-place and to within one-point of the League Two summit and Sadler said that Allen and everyone connected to him are at the forefront of everyone's minds.

Sadler said: "I am so proud of Taylor today after what he has gone through over the last two or three days. We shouldn't take that for granted the fact that he would play today but knowing that man, I knew that he would want to.

"He's just a resilient and incredible person. I've got so much respect and admiration for him and his family, and to produce the performance that he did today, I'm so proud of him.

"He was unbelievable. That win certainly goes to Taylor, his family, friends and everyone connected with his father."

Lowe opened the scoring with a spectacular sweeping first-time finish into the top corner six minutes after the restart and the Stoke City loanee turned provider for Lakin to double Walsall's advantage six minutes later.

Sadler was pleased with his "proactive" performance and felt he was unfortunate not to finish the afternoon with more goals.

"He's proactive. Darren Byfield always talks about how proactive he is and maybe that's striker talk but he's an extremely proactive striker and I think the keeper has pulled off two wonderful saves to keep out one from Charlie (Lakin) and one for Lowey," the Walsall boss continued.

"He could've had a couple more and I did contemplate taking him off in the last few minutes but the kid just keeps on running. I thought he put in a proper striker's performance."

Walsall had struggled to bring either Jamille Matt or Lowe into the contest in the first 45 minutes but the wing-backs, especially Connor Barrett down the right, played an instrumental role in the Saddlers' second half siege.

Barrett fetched his fifth assist in all competitions this season for Lowe's opener and played a key role in the build-up to Lakin's second. And Sadler felt Walsall's wide men blew Salford away after the break.

"We spoke at half-time about just being another half a yard brighter and on the front foot both in and out of possession. We really wanted to get our wing-backs into the game which we didn't in the first half," he concluded.

"You saw with the way that Connor (Barrett) and Liam (Gordon) played in that second half how important they are for us. They blew them away in that second half and defensively we had to be absolute rocks back there."