Walsall FC's Febian Brandy: We must hit the ground running

The winger felt the Saddlers did not show enough urgency until they fell a goal behind six minutes into the second half, when Chuks Aneke opened the scoring for the visitors.

Despite Mark Ellis' own goal salvaging a point after the hosts had pushed hard for a leveller, Brandy believes they must be ready to go from the first whistle. "I think we went a goal down and that's when we perked up," he said. "No team should be doing that.

"I think that is something we need to sit down and talk about. We need to be on the front foot early doors rather than waiting to go behind."

The Saddlers have not led a game since Brandy put them ahead at Notts County back on January 25. They went on to win the game 5-1 but have not tasted victory in eight games since and failed to test visiting keeper Ben Garratt before he was beaten by his own player with just seconds of the 90 minutes remaining.

Milan Lalkovic was then denied a winner in stoppage time, when Garratt tipped his drive onto the bar.

Brandy admitted to "massive relief" at the somewhat fortunate equaliser but admitted there were mixed emotions in the dressing room after the final whistle.

When asked if the result felt like a point gained or two dropped, he said: "It's a hard one really because, no disrespect to Crewe, it was a game we expected to win.

"We went a goal down but we all worked hard. So you can see it as a point gained or a point lost, it depends who you are. All of the lads were relieved when it went in because we went a goal down but we were pushing and trying our hardest to score.

"It was a massive relief. The goal we conceded was not the best and of late we have not had luck on our side.

"When it went in I think we were all relieved and it gave us a boost to try and get another one. Milan almost scored. Had that gone in we would have been head over heels."