Saddlers hold on to beat Bury...
Left-back Andy Taylor hailed his side’s resilience after the Saddlers held off a spirited Bury fightback to win 3-2 at Gigg Lane.Walsall raced into a three-goal half-time lead, thanks to Chris Hussey’s own goal and further strikes from Tom Bradshaw and Anthony Forde.
Leon Clarke’s second-half double gave Bury hope but Walsall stood firm to secure an eighth away victory of the campaign.
“In conditions like that, you’re always going to get mistakes so it usually does lead to an entertaining game,” said Taylor afterwards.
“It was a terrific first-half performance from us, we set ourselves up for the game really well.
“We would have liked a less eventful second-half, but in the last 20 minutes we showed that when we need to mix it, dig in and stick together, we can do it.
“We’re proud of the character of our performance.
“It would have been easy to crumble after conceding two goals in a minute but we settled it down and saw it out really well.”
Victory over Bury lifted Walsall up to second in League One, just two points behind leaders Burton.
But when asked whether the players look at the league table, Taylor replied: “Yes and no. We’ll look after the game but personally, I try to concentrate on the points tally.
“There’s a points tally that you need to hit to reach these targets, whether it be promotion or play-offs, and we’re just working towards that.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in the automatics in January, you’ve got to be there in May.”
And Taylor has revealed that head coach Sean O’Driscoll is also setting points targets for each block of five matches.
“It’s good because if one result doesn’t go your way, you’ve got another opportunity within that block to pick up the points you need to hit the five-game target,” he said.
“It’s a good way of breaking down the season.”