Walsall held by Scunthorpe on Tuesday evening...
Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge believes opposition teams are coming to the Banks’s to “stop us playing”.Our most recent home fixture against Scunthorpe on Tuesday evening finished goalless – and Etheridge admits teams are setting up to stifle our passing game.
“Teams are coming to our place and are looking to stop us playing out from the back, and stop us playing the football we were playing at the start of the season,” said Etheridge.
“It’s hard to play when teams are pressing you as well as some teams are.
“It’s credit to us that teams are coming here to stop us playing football, as it shows we’re a fantastic footballing team.
"We’ve had to change our style of play slightly because at the start of the season, teams were playing differently against us, more open.
“But now we are near the top of the league, teams have changed their style and tactics against us.
“If you look at Scunthorpe, next week they will play a completely different style of football.
"Teams are definitely doing their homework on us and making it hard for us to score goals but we are not leaking goals.
"If we can keep a base of clean sheets from now until the end of the season, it will turn and we will score goals and the points will come."
Walsall have gone five league matches without success – but Etheridge isn’t concerned by our recent run of results.
“We’re still up there and if we can keep continuing with our performances, I know the goals will come again,” he added.
“We played well against Scunthorpe and on numerous occasions over the last few games but it just hasn’t fallen for us.
“We’re still fighting and the main thing is that we’re keeping clean sheets.
“We’re very solid at the back and if we can keep that going, the switch will flick and we’ll be able to put it in the back of the net.”