Walsall defender Joe Foulkes was pleased to get a significant number of minutes on the pitch at the weekend and felt confident thanks to work he’s been doing on the training pitch.
The 20-year-old replaced Tom Knowles after 17 minutes and impressed with his performance on Saturday, including a winning a penalty, despite the Saddlers falling to a 2-0 defeat against Forest Green Rovers.
Foulkes felt he was ready to step in when called upon and is aiming to kick on between now and the end of the campaign.
“I’ve been itching to get back on the pitch,” Foulkes said.
“I’ve been trying to keep myself fit, keep myself ticking over and fortunately it paid off for me (on Saturday).
“I felt good out there, I felt confident and I’ve had a lot of help from the coaches. Even when you’re not in the team, there’s an arm around you and you still feel part of the team, we’re really together.
“I love being around the lads and the staff as well, it’s like a big family. There has been difficult times throughout the season, I’m sure the fans will understand that as well. We’ve stayed resolute, we’ve stayed together and now we’re seeing results of it.
“Saturday wasn’t the result we were after but you could see after the goals went in everyone is still behind each other so it feels good to be part of this group and hopefully now we can kick on until now until the end of the season.”
The Saddlers are quickly back into action this evening as Barrow visit the Poundland Bescot Stadium in another crucial league fixture.
Foulkes hopes the team can respond to the weekend’s defeat at the New Lawn and start a similar run to the one the they went on in February.
“These games come thick and fast,” Foulkes said.
“We’ve already come out of a busy schedule where we were fortunate to pick up the results that we did.
“We’ve got a chance on Tuesday to put things right and I’m sure the fans will be backing us. We will do everything we possibly can to try and get the result we need.”
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