Walsall striker Jamille Matt is proud to be part of such a tight nit group of players and is enjoying life in the Saddlers dressing room.
The 34-year-old has scored two goals in as many matches, both the only goal in back-to-back 1-0 victories over Alfreton Town and Tranmere Rovers respectively.
Matt has felt the unity within the camp throughout the campaign and loves the way all the players rally around each other.
“I’ve not played as much as I’ve liked this year but the boys have been fantastic,” Matt said.
“That’s something that keeps you going because you come in every day and enjoy your work because of how tight we are as a group.
“We keep each other going when anything happens, we all rally round each other. It’s a great group of boys and I’m probably the eldest one in the group so it’s ‘Uncle Jams’ a lot of the time but I’m proud to be their ‘uncle’ because I’m proud to call them my teammates.”
His teammates also showed him support after his goal against Tranmere which was an emotional one for Matt personally, as shown by his celebration.
“Unfortunately, we lost someone close to our family so it was an emotional time and someone who meant a lot to myself and my family so it was important to hold that (shirt) out for James.
“I hadn’t said anything to anyone apart from the gaffer, our kit man and Knowlesy (Tom Knowles) who were the only ones that knew because I didn’t really want to make a fuss about it.
“It obviously meant a lot but to be honest, it was probably the most relaxed I’ve gone into a game because when things like this happen, it puts everything into perspective and football pails into insignificance if I’m being honest.
“I’m happy to get the win for the boys and for James.”
The Saddlers are on a four-match unbeaten run after Saturday’s victory.
Mat Sadler’s side are set to embark on the traditionally busy festive fixture list with four matches in the space of nine days and the former Forest Green striker feels the team have worked hard to put themselves in a strong position heading into the hectic period and stressed the importance of having good momentum.
“It’s massive,” he stated.
“It all snowballs and it can go either way. You can have downward momentum and you can have upward momentum and at the minute we’ve got a good bit of momentum in terms of three games.
“We would like to bottle that feeling because we want to keep it coming and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.
“A lot of it has come from the hard work that we’ve done on the training pitch so we’ve just got to keep doing that, keep doing the basics rights, keep doing the one-percenters, which the boys have been doing, and if we keep doing that and getting the performance right first and foremost because the performance levels have been excellent in the last week especially so if you keep getting those performance levels right, results tend to follow.”
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