LOCAL lad, Richard Taundry made his first start since October as we shared the spoils with Charlton Athletic on Tuesday evening.

The 20 year-old replaced Mark Bradley in the heart of the side having fully recovered from a hamstring injury. "It was great to be back in the starting line-up," he said with a smile. "I enjoyed it. The conditions were difficult but those are the sort of conditions that I was brought up on and we adapted well to it.

"I had plenty of the ball during the first half but things became a little more scrappy after the break. The penalty was disappointing; there is nothing we can do about it now, so we have to just get on with things.

"Everyone was gutted at the end as we felt that we should have had a penalty of our own during the second half."

Taundry is hoping that his performance will earn him a run in the side for the busy schedule of matches that lie ahead. "I enjoyed it alongside Dwayne Mattis," he added. "We had different jobs to do but linked up well.

"I just love playing football and hopefully I will keep my place as we have plenty of games coming up. I know that I have to keep working hard as the likes of Mark Bradley will be desperate to get back in."

The Saddlers face a double-header against Bristol Rovers, starting with the home game on Saturday before heading to the Memorial Stadium on Tuesday. "We can take heart from our last two performances at home," he went on. "We've done extremely well against two of the better sides in this League and deserved more than the one point that we have to show for our efforts.

"We know that we will have to earn the right to play against Bristol Rovers. They have had a couple of bad results recently, but we are confident that we can get the right result.

"From a personal point of view I feel fit and determined to push on and enjoy the second half of the season."

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