Defender scored only goal in battling win...
Jason McCarthy believes Walsall’s battling 1-0 victory over Bolton could prove a turning point in our season.The Southampton loanee scored the game’s only goal on 25 minutes when he bundled home a Kieron Morris free-kick – his first goal in Saddlers colours.
Joe Edwards had earlier been sent off for an alleged elbow on Chris Taylor, but despite playing 74 minutes with ten men, Walsall held on for a first league win since the opening day.
And McCarthy, who was yesterday named in the EFL Team of the Week, is hoping his side can now “kick on” from that result.
“We’ve had little bits of luck go against us lately,” admitted the 20-year-old. “It has been hard at times to see the positive side of things but that was the perfect way for us to kick start a good run now.
“We were up against everything. With the sending off it was like, ‘what else could possibly go wrong at the moment?’
“But we dug in and showed our battling qualities, which is what people were probably questioning.
“Everyone knows we can unlock a door as we’ve got match winners but we showed we can stick with it and be defensively sound.
“It was a really big win for us and hopefully it can be a turning point and we can kick on from here and start climbing the league.”
McCarthy’s goal was the third of his career - the other two came on loan at Wycombe last season – and he admitted it was a proud moment.
“We knew if we were going to get a goal it was likely to be a scrappy one from a set piece,” he said.
“Maybe we didn’t expect it to come that quickly but after that we showed our defensive qualities to hold on.
“It was a really proud moment for me. I was delighted to score and get that first one out of the way.
“It was great to get it in a game like that as well and hopefully we’ll look back on this fixture later in the season and say that was when we turned it around.
“It was great to get a goal in front of the home crowd as well. The fans were brilliant, they really got behind us. It was a great feeling.”