Walsall manager Darrell Clarke admitted it will be nice to see supporters in a stadium when his side travel to Tranmere Rovers on Saturday, albeit without the Saddlers faithful.
There is set to be 2,000 Rovers supporters at Prenton Park tomorrow with Birkenhead under tier 2 restrictions meaning the Saddlers will have a home crowd to contend with.
Clarke feels his team will benefit when the time comes for Walsall to welcome supporters back to the Banks’s Stadium but is nevertheless still looking forward to playing in front a crowd of sorts tomorrow afternoon.
“It’s nice to see fans back,” said Clarke.
“We can’t wait to get our own fans back. That’s why we are in football, for the passion to watch the games and fans supporting their local team.
“It will be a strange feeling after such a long time without them but hopefully those 2,000 Tranmere fans will go home unhappy.
“When we’re out of tier 3, we want to be putting in performances and it’s certainly been a frustrating period so I think our fans could potentially help us.
“In the first half against Stevenage, I think that would have got the momentum and the fans going albeit the quality in the final third so there’s a lot of things that go into winning football matches but it will certainly be great to see the Walsall fans back.
“I like to see the passion and what it means to football fans because that’s exactly how I feel on the touchline.”
Tranmere are on a fine run of form and haven’t tasted defeat in all competitions since October 31st.
Clarke is looking forward to facing Keith Hill’s side and insists his team are ready for the challenge.
“They’re on a good run,” Clarke commented.
“I think it’s the sort of league where you can go on those runs and we keep believing that we can be one of those sides that go on those runs because Tranmere will look at three defeats in 20 league games, yes 11 draws and six victories but that’s the sign of a team that’s hard to beat and we’ll give them a game.
“We’re looking forward to going up there. Their confidence is high but we’ll be ready to go.”
You can watch tomorrow’s game live on iFollow by purchasing a match pass here.