Lee Grant highlights trust in whole group as Walsall cruise past Oldham
The Saddlers claimed a fourth victory.
Walsall boss Lee Grant says his trust in his entire squad is behind the Saddlers’ unbeaten League Two start after they brushed Oldham aside 3-0.
Grant has regularly tinkered with his side but they claimed a fourth victory, to go alongside seven draws, in 11 games to inch up to fourth.
Goalkeeper Jed Ward was their first-half hero, pinging a brilliant pass to free Tai Sodje to slot in the opener, and making key saves from Kane Drummond and Favour Fawunmi.
Aaron Pressley’s double – a cool finish from Declan Skura’s through ball and a penalty after Mike Fondop’s handball – took his league tally for the season to seven.
Walsall held out for the final half-hour after last man Elicha Ahui’s red card for hauling down Fawunmi, as Grant praised the depth of talent at his disposal.
“I have just trusted my whole group – we had our best performance of the season at Swindon on Saturday and I made four changes tonight,” he said.
“And I don’t know whether the lads are thinking, ‘is the gaffer all right?’ but I just trust them all.
“We got to see both sides of the group tonight – a team really going after the game first half, lots of control, shots, opportunities and threat, and two excellent goals.
“Then we see the other side which is becoming a clear trend in terms of the character of the group, the fight and determination, and in some ways that feels sweeter.”
One man who has been a regular starter is keeper Ward, who has impressed with both hands and feet.
“The goalkeeper, in terms of what he’s bringing at the moment, is really high level,” former stopper Grant added.
“He made a big save at 0-0, a big save at 1-0, an incredible assist and his distribution was so well executed.”
Oldham, meanwhile, slipped to 21st after a fifth league defeat in seven.
Boss Micky Mellon said: “It was a hugely disappointing evening and you cannot give goals away like that. The goals we gave away were not acceptable, not good enough.
“We made it really difficult for ourselves by giving away goals that we didn’t make Walsall work hard to get.
“We had a few opportunities but we were not clinical enough, we had enough opportunities to give ourselves a lift or a jolt but we didn’t take them.
“We blew our own heads off. Not enough of us came here and were willing to scrap our way into making an impact on the game, too many were missing.
“That’s the bare minimum of any performance, find those scrapping instincts and give nothing away, and we didn’t allow ourselves to do that.
“We need to stop giving away stupid goals and we need to be more ruthless at the other end.”