Jon Whitney felt the Saddlers got the result they deserved after beating struggling MK Dons 1-0.
Julien Ngoy scored the only goal on 70 minutes – just four minutes after coming on for his debut.
“I thought we were deserved winners,” said the boss.
“We were solid and it was nice to get the clean sheet. There were lots of positives.
“It was always planned to take Amadou [Bakayoko] and Erhun [Oztumer] off, with the amount of energy they had to expend to stop them getting out.
“We aimed to flip the two of them – and that’s what we aimed to do with Justin [Shaibu] and Julien, to bring them on and keep that energy and that threat.
“We asked for a big shift because we know Dan [Micciche] wants them to play out from the back.
“They’ve got individual players who can hurt you if you give them space and time, but I thought we limited it really well. We won the ball back and threatened. That was the game plan.
“It was nice for Julien to come on and get the goal and it was nice for Jack [Fitzwater] to get man of the match.
“I thought he came in and did really well for a young lad playing his first game in League One.
“Credit to the team – they stuck to the game plan really well and we were deserved winners.”