Walsall Head Coach Matt Taylor hopes his team can replicate their most recent home performance when they take on a Newport County side who he feels will provide a ‘slightly’ different challenge to the one they provided in September.
The Saddlers are set to return to action on New Year’s Day for the first time since the 3-0 victory over Colchester United on December 11th.
It’s been a strange period which has seen the last three matches all postponed and a lot of time on the training field.
Taylor and the team have been working to ensure they maintain the levels the reached against Colchester, which he feels will be required against a Newport side who currently sit in the play-off places and have a different manager, James Rowberry, in charge to the one faced in the reverse fixture back in September.
“It will be different, the personnel will be similar but whenever a new manager goes into a football club there will be a slight change in style,” Taylor said.
“Has there been that? I would say slightly, yes. They have got players who are in form, players who are scoring goals and they’re in a healthy position in the league so what he’s done when he’s gone in there has obviously worked.
“For us, we are as per usual, we're extremely respectful of the opposition we’re facing but understanding that for us to get a positive result, we’ve got to replicate the last performance that we put in at home.
“It seems an age ago now of course but it’s given us an opportunity to work on things at the training ground. It’s been nice to prep towards a game.
“Training today has been more different than it has been recently because it’s more specific about the opposition of Newport.
“It’s going to be an extremely difficult game, I know I say that a lot but I don’t feel there are any games that you can target and say that ‘we’re going to win.’
“Of course we understand that if we are going to get the result that we want, which is three points on Saturday, we have to make sure that the levels that we hit against Colchester, we hit against Newport.”
“We’ve been prepping for games that haven’t been on, for me it has been fine but this week we’re hopeful that nothing comes up to call the game off.
“From my perspective and for the players, we’ve been working towards Newport and it’s been a positive week of training. I will say again, the players have been fantastic with their attitude towards training.
“They’ve had one or two days off but other than that, they’ve worked hard in the main so we’re very much looking forward to the game on Saturday.”
Tickets are still available for tomorrow’s game. Call the Ticket Office on 01922 651 416 or click here to purchase.
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