Walsall Head Coach is hoping his side will make amends for Saturday’s defeat at Accrington when they take on Crewe Alexandra on Boxing Day.
After falling behind to Tommy Leigh’s goal after nine minutes, the Saddlers equalised on the stroke of half time thanks to Freddie Draper’s penalty but Joe Pritchard scored what proved to be the winner when his cross-shot found the back of the net 12 minutes into the second half.
Focus quickly shifts to the visit of Crewe to the Poundland Bescot Stadium and Sadler is looking forward to the test and the opportunity to right the wrongs from events at the Wham Stadium.
“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity on Tuesday afternoon to put it right,” Sadler said.
“We’re looking forward to the game, there’s going to be a great crowd so it’s an opportunity for us to make amends, start climbing the table again, put our marker down and getting back to the standards that we showed in the previous four games.
“The game (at Accrington) didn’t go the way we wanted it to go and it was the below the standards that we’ve set ourselves so we have to have a positive reaction on Tuesday and that’s the challenge for the group.”
Draper was back on the scoresheet for the first time since his hat-trick against Newport County back in October.
It’s been a frustrating period for the 19-year-old who had a month out injured and has been finding his feet again after returning to action.
Scoring from the penalty spot was a real psychological boost for Draper and he was relieved to be back on the goal trail after his longest spell in a Saddlers shirt without finding the net.
“I wanted to score again and I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to score,” Draper commented.
“I missed my first ever professional penalty at Drogheda so there was another bit of relief when that went in but I’m just disappointed we didn’t at least get a point from it, which we should have really, but we want to get a better result on Boxing Day.”
It was a bittersweet day for the forward and he admitted that the team fell below the standards they expect of themselves.
He stressed the players will come out fighting to make amends on Boxing Day.
“We need to learn from this and learn that we can’t do this again,” he said.
“We can’t perform like that and expect to win but the games come thick and fast over the next few weeks and we want to get back and play on Boxing Day.
“We know we’ve got to look after ourselves, recover but we will come oout fighting for that Boxing Day game as we need to rectify (Saturday) because we know as a team that isn’t our standards.
“We want to keep going and show everyone that we are a dominant team in this league."