Newport County vs Walsall: "Belief" is still there, says Liam Gordon
Liam Gordon says Walsall are trying to "eradicate negativity" and refocus on the task at hand after falling out of the League Two automatic promotion places.
The Guyana international scored an 87th-minute leveller to salvage a point in their 2-2 draw against Harrogate Town at Bescot on Good Friday, although it proved not enough to prevent them from dropping to fourth.
The Saddlers had occupied a place among the top three since September 7 but a run of just two wins from 18 games has ultimately derailed their promotion bid.
The draw against Harrogate also extended their winless run to 11 games and Gordon believes anything less than three points won't be good enough when they travel to Newport County this afternoon.
"I wouldn't say I've learned loads. The negative side of it is what we're trying to eradicate out of our minds so I wouldn't say the lows," Gordon reflected.
"It's another challenge and that's what football poses across a whole season. We were top of the league but that's done and that's long gone.
"We're not there anymore. There's a reason why we're not there but we've all understood that and we're taking it out of our mind.
"Our job is to get promotion. Yes, we want to win the league title, but we've got to focus on these three games.
"In order for us to win the title, in order for us to win promotion, we have to win these three games. It's as simple as that."
Walsall sit just a single point adrift of Bradford City in third-place and there is still likely to be a number of twists and turns over the next fortnight.
Bradford still have Chesterfield, Doncaster and Notts County respectively to face but an ability to produce in key moments continues to cost Walsall.
It feels as if belief and confidence is in very limited supply of late and the performance in the aftermath of Harrogate's equaliser was symptomatic of exactly that.
They looked a bag of nerves and it took the introductions of Levi Amantchi, Nathan Asiimwe, Alfie Chang and Albert Adomah to forge a late fightback.
Do the players still believe they're capable? Gordon strongly thinks so.
"I don't know what sort of person I'd be if I was sitting here saying that it is done [the promotion race]," he added.
"Of course we believe. We have that belief and we've had that belief throughout the whole season even when we've gone through the bad spells and even through the good times.
"We still believe that we are going to get the job done which we've set out to do since the start of the season.
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