'Fight, desire and bravery' - Mat Sadler on Walsall's comeback draw at Chesterfield
Mat Sadler has hailed the "bravery" Walsall showed to come from two goals behind in their 2-2 draw against Chesterfield at the SMH Group Stadium.
Will Grigg and Dilan Markanday propelled Chesterfield into a 2-0 lead after just 20 minutes as the Saddlers struggled to contain the hosts.
Daniel Kanu halved the deficit on the cusp of half-time, before substitute Albert Adomah salvaged a point with an equaliser on the hour-mark.
Walsall dropped to seventh in League Two following a third draw on the spin, but did maintain their four-point buffer over Chesterfield in eighth.
'We showed bravery' - Sadler on Walsall's fightback
"It's clear that I'm going to talk about the fight, the heart, the character and the desire," boss Sadler said.
"I just said to the players then that all of the words that can be meaningless, that was the reference to it.
"There was bravery on the ball, a willingness to work hard, make sure we stuck in the game and then we got our rewards for that.
"We were probably disappointed not to win the game in the end. Myles made a really good save at the end but in the main, it felt like we were the team in control in the second half."
Grigg scored against his former club in the 13th-minute and Evan Weir was guilty of giving the ball away as Markanday streaked through to finish confidently.
Sadler disagreed that Walsall struggled to click for the majority of the first half, but was pleased with the response his team showed, particularly in the case of Weir following his error.
"I disagree that it didn't get going for 40 minutes it didn't get going. Sometimes we can just get sidetracked by goals," he continued.
"I'm not going to say for one second that the first 12 minutes before they scored was anything other than a difficult spell.
"But you expect that, you want to get on the front-foot and look after the ball better to bring a bit of control to it.
"And then they score during that spell which is difficult. After their first goal, I thought we started to control the game well and got into our patterns.
"Then but for a moment, I felt quite comfortable with our reaction to the goal, and then again after the second goal."
"So we were gutted to concede that early goal which just put us on that back foot again. Then we were just starting to settle into the game and that gives us a tough ask when the second goal goes in.
"No problem with that because Evan gets us playing all the time and his reaction, and his teammates reaction to look after each was class."
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