Walsall boss Mat Sadler was proud of his side’s reaction after the runaway League Two leaders came from behind to beat Notts County 2-1.
Second-half goals from Jamille Matt and Nathan Lowe secured the Saddlers a seventh win in a row that left them 12 points clear, while their opponents slid from third to seventh in the tightly contested battle for the other two automatic promotion spots.
Notts County were given warnings before Alassana Jatta gave the hosts a deserved lead in the first half, and Sadler admitted his original plan for the game failed.
“Yeah I really am (proud) for lots of reasons,” Sadler said.
“First half, plan A clearly wasn’t working. They started to get on top, and we couldn’t work that out.
“It’s a real credit to everyone for digging in when plan A wasn’t working.
“(Notts County midfielder Daniel) Crowley was free flowing around the pitch and we weren’t happy about it.
“But in the second half, we showed what we were about and we were a team possessed. Credit to the lads, they were unbelievable.”
Jatta scored the opener in the 26th minute, by which time the Gambia forward had already been denied an opener by a brilliant bit of defending from Evan Weir.
Jatta rounded goalkeeper Tommy Simkin and rolled the ball towards the net, only for Weir to get back to clear off the line.
Sadler added: “We have to thank Evan for some unbelievable defending. I’ve not seen a better goal-line clearance than that.
“It’s brilliant last-ditch defending.”
Matt nodded home the equaliser in the 65th minute before Lowe slammed home the winner with eight minutes left.
Notts County thought they had scored a late equaliser when David McGoldrick put the ball in the back of the net but the assistant referee deemed the forward offside and the goal was ruled out.
Magpies head coach Stuart Maynard said: “I thought we were excellent in the first half, dominated and created chances.
“That was probably as good as we have been since we have been here as a management team.
“We have to give credit to the opposition of course, but it’s a game of two halves.
“We were excellent in the first half and could have been two or three up and that is a huge frustration of ours, absolutely huge.
“On reflection of the whole game, I think a point would’ve been a fair result.”
