We won’t be promoted at Christmas – Mat Sadler plays down Walsall praise

Walsall boss Mat Sadler insists his side will not get carried away despite a 1-0 victory over Barrow ensuring they will be top of League Two at Christmas.

Defender Taylor Allen’s strike extended the Saddlers’ unbeaten run to 10 matches and stretched their cushion over second-placed Port Vale to four points with a game in hand.

“We won’t be getting promoted at Christmas, that doesn’t happen,” Sadler stated.

“I’ll keep batting that back because, as far as I’m aware, 40 points has never got you promoted so we’ve got a hell of lot of work to do.

“We’ve done all right to get to where we are and we just have to keep working.”

Sadler’s work in the past 18 months in his first head coach role has caught the eyes of others, with reports linking him with managerial vacancies at Millwall and Northampton this week.

But he insisted he is happy where he is.

“It’s just part of football – people talk, people do well and things get said about them,” the 39-year-old said. “But I’ve got a hell of a job here, I’m really enjoying it and that’s the main thing.”

Bar one fine save from goalkeeper Tommy Simkin to deny Emile Acquah, Walsall were rarely troubled after going ahead but wasted opportunities to kill the game off.

“It was a really enjoyable collective performance and it didn’t feel too nervy too often, although a second goal would really have taken all the life out of it,” Sadler admitted.

“It wasn’t vintage and nobody is going away thinking what an incredible free-flowing win it was but we deserved to win and we did.”

Barrow boss Stephen Clemence was delighted to see Acquah make his first start in almost two months after injury.

But his goal-shy mid-table side have now scored just 18 goals in 19 games and have not won in nine.

“We went toe-to-toe with the league leaders,” Clemence said.

“We don’t concede many and it was a tight game but unfortunately we’ve got no goals to show for it and that’s a little bit where we’ve been the last number of weeks.

“I’m disappointed with the result but there were large parts of the performance I was really pleased with.

“We have to stick together, there is still a lot of belief in that dressing room.

“I thought Emile was outstanding – he went on one little run, nearly scored a goal out of nothing and he’s had another good effort from which their keeper made an outstanding save.

“I’ve said to the boys, you’ve seen what the top of the league looks like, are you that far away? In my opinion, no. But we lack a little bit of quality sometimes around the box.”