Walsall Player-Coach Mat Sadler is keen to make a positive impact on the team every time he plays.
The 35-year-old has started in each of the last four games for the Saddlers and has impressed since coming into the side.
Sadler has been enjoying his new coaching role working closely with manager Darrell Clarke and Assistant Coach Brian Dutton.
He is keen to repay them having seen and been involved in the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
“Whenever I come in to the team, obviously I see the stuff from the other side of the fence,” he said.
“We analyse games, we’re watching things all the time and we try to recruit players so the football club we’re at, we do everything. I see how hard the manager works, how relentless he is and how diligently Brian Dutton works in his tactical analysis of the games.
“I know how much it means to the staff so when you go on, you just want to make an impact but also, not let anyone down. That’s what I’m trying to do and Saturday was a good day for that.
“We’ve got a free week now and things that we’d like to look at and work on to hopefully beat Mansfield next week. We watched them a couple of weeks ago and they’re a strong and positive team and their manager has got them playing so a tough game to go ahead.”
The Saddlers came away from Port Vale with a 3-1 victory on Saturday thanks to Elijah Adebayo’s brace and an own goal.
New signing Tyreik Wright also made his professional debut from the start and Sadler was impressed with the 19-year-old.
“Sometimes football’s not complicated, he wanted to run forward,” explained Sadler.
“He wanted to run forward against a full-back who’s not as quick as him and not as athletic as him and we’ve got a few that when they run forward and they run forward fast, people can’t live with them.
"Factor in to that Tyreik’s obvious quality, his set pieces were good and his quality with the delivery of the football, he could be a good acquisition for us so I was pleased for him.
"I spoke to a couple of people at the Villa in the week and gave them the heads up that it might be (his debut) on Saturday so hopefully they were watching and saw the fantastic performance the lad put in and doing things that we saw and that’s why we wanted to bring him to the club.”
The Saddlers will now be looking forward to Saturday’s game against Mansfield Town at the Banks’s Stadium.
Watch the game live on iFollow by purchasing a match pass here.