Lee Grant looking at the 'bigger picture' after Walsall's EFL Trophy exit

Lee Grant says Walsall must look at the “bigger picture” after they bowed out of the EFL Trophy with a 2-1 defeat at League One side Leicester City.

Andy Dallas opened the scoring with his second goal in as many games after 10 minutes, but goals from John Lundstram and Will Smallbone completed a quick turnaround for Leicester.

That ultimately saw the Foxes pip them to second-place in the group, but Walsall have made it clear that the EFL Trophy was always going to treated differently than other competitions.

And for that reason, Grant has been pleased with the signs of progression that Walsall have shown on that front, particularly the minutes provided to the academy players.

“I really enjoyed the way the boys stuck to their task and the way that it started to get a little bit nervous [for Leicester] with five minutes to go.

“There were so many positives to take. I’m proud of the group and of course we’re disappointed that we’re out of the competition.

“But at the same time, we knew very well that this competition had different goals at the end of it for us as a football club.

“We’ve certainly achieved those goals with the minutes we’ve been able to get into our young players.”

16-year-old Ryan Sjoerdsma, who’s still only a first year scholar, made his second senior start at the King Power Stadium, after coming off the bench in the FA Cup defeat at Newport County on Saturday.

On the youngster, Grant added: “We’re proud of him as a football club this evening and there’s easy decisions to make in terms of starting senior players.

“I have to go back to the things that I love as a coach and that the football club pride themselves on.

“Those things were on display with the decision to start Ryan in the first place. Having took that decision, I was delighted to see him play with such personality.

“Russell Martin commended his performance as he walked off the pitch and gave me a nod to say that the youngster did well.

“Fantastic for him, for his family and for his own development.”

Despite two cup exits in the space of three days, Dallas has started to chip in on the goal scoring front with goals in back-to-back games to take his season tally to three in all competitions.

“When our forwards score, we’re always really pleased and it’s always nice to score a goal on something that you’ve worked on the day before,” Grant revealed.

“Great to get off to that start and that’s several games in a row where we’ve started really aggressively.

“We’ve done that at Newport [in the FA Cup], we’ve done that tonight and we did it the week previously against Colchester.

“We’re pleased about that. Of course, we want to finish with results rather than just starting well, we also want to finish well.

“But tonight is much more the bigger picture for us.”