Walsall Head Coach Mat Sadler has called on his players to impose themselves when they take on Bradford City tomorrow afternoon.
The Saddlers will be looking to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointing defeat to AFC Wimbledon.
Sadler expects Mark Hughes’ side to be pushing at the top end of the table this season and feels his team will have to adapt to combat the challenge they will provide as they look to right the wrongs from last weekend.
“We dust ourselves down after last week and I’ve said it from before a ball was kicked that there will be tough moments throughout the season and I’ve also said we’ve got a really good squad here who can wear many different hats at different times,” Sadler said.
“We’ll have to wear a different one this weekend to what we’ve had before against a good opposition but it’s a game we want to go and win, play well, set our stall out and impose ourselves on the game.
“They’ll fancy themselves to be up there this season and rightly so, they had a really good season last season and they’ve got a really experienced manager, some fantastically experienced players, some gifted football players so it will be a tough afternoon but we go there trying to impose ourselves on the game, with the confidence and belief that we can do that.”
The Saddlers suffered some injury set backs during last week’s game against AFC Wimbledon as Oisin McEntee and Priestley Farquharson were forced off.
Sadler confirmed in his pre-match press conference that McEntee will be in contention to play but also revealed that Farquharson’s injury is not as bad as was initially feared and his condition will be assessed over the next 24 hours.
“The Priestley one this week, we’ll get the scan results back and we’ll adjust what we see based on that, we’re not completely clear of that picture just yet so we’ll see how things go over the next 24/48 hours with him,” Sadler confirmed.
Elsewhere on the injury front, Sadler said: “Coms (Brandon Comley) is getting there, he’s not ready yet but he’ll be working his way into my plans over the next two or three weeks so that’s really good news.
“David has gone back to Stoke for a couple of weeks now and then will be back with us just after that so he won’t be too far off hopefully.
“Rollin (Menayese) and Jack (Earing) are our long-term ones still so they won’t be affecting things just yet.
“There’s been adversity in that, there’s been challenges. You want to put your settled team out and we haven’t had the opportunity to do that but I always say, and I’ll stick by this, it opens up the opportunity for somebody else to show what they’re all about.
“There will be no whinging about injuries from my side of things, we just get on with it and go there to try and impose ourselves on the game.”
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