Andy Taylor backs Walsall to rebound

After remaining unbeaten throughout all of August, the Saddlers' outstanding start was halted by two defeats in the space of four days at the beginning of September.

Defeat at Morecambe saw them exit the Johnstone's Paint Trophy while Bury secured a hard-fought league win at the Banks's Stadium last Saturday.

In those games, Dean Smith's men created a staggering 38 chances. And after an otherwise impressive start, Taylor insists the players are solely concentrating on the positives.

He said: "The secret for us is that we don't get carried away – win, lose or draw. We had a terrific start but we never got ahead of ourselves.

"And now we are not going to get carried away because we have lost two games.

"There have been so many positives so far and we knew eventually we would lose a game. But it's how you deal with that and all the lads have now moved on and are ready to go again on Saturday."

The Saddlers were particularly unlucky not to take anything from the visit of David Flitcroft's Shakers, with the away side happy to sit back and defend in numbers once they took a sixth-minute lead.

Taylor added: "I don't think many teams will be able to come here and defend as well as Bury did. They were defending for long periods of the game and they did it very well.

"They were very effective. But it's was difficult for us to come off and be too unhappy considering how well we played. It was just that final little pass, that final ball that was missing.

"But we have still had a very good start so there is nothing to get down about."

Meanwhile, midfielder Sam Mantom admits he is thrilled for team mate Romaine Sawyers who has scored four goals already this season.

Sawyers, whose strikes include an early goal of the season contender in the win at Blackpool – only managed five across the whole of last season.

Mantom said: "Romaine has always scored a lot of goals in training and it's great to see him kick on and now get them in the public eye.

"When you score wonder goals, like at Blackpool, it helps your profile massively. He knew at the start of the season he had to score more goals.

"The fans were telling him that, the gaffer was telling him that. He needed to do that to go onto the next level and now he is doing brilliantly. The only way is up for him."