Walsall Head Coach Mat Sadler was pleased to see Josh Gordon find the net on Saturday and was delighted with the collective effort of everyone at the club.
Gordon scored the first of Walsall’s three as Jack Earing and Mo Faal also found the net in the 3-1 triumph over Doncaster Rovers.
Sadler highlighted a number of standout performances but he was happy to see Gordon get off the mark following positive conversations between the pair in the days leading up to the match.
“Josh has been itching to get that first goal since he’s come back,” Sadler said.
“I had a conversation on Thursday and Friday with him. What he’s doing for the team is unbelievable, the work rate that he is putting in.
“I see my strikers careering into their own half to try and block potential attacks, I see Jamille (Matt) sprinting to the halfway line to stop a counter attack.
“I see Mo and Douglas (James-Taylor) giving everything they can to lead from the front and it makes such a difference to this team and what’s behind it from there.
“I thought those four in particular were top drawer and I said to the group, I thought Brandon was immense, he broke so much up and he was operating in the worst part of the pitch but the energy and athleticism he displayed was incredible.
“I thought they were all tremendous, everyone played their part. It was a really good day for the football club on the back of what’s been a really tiring week for everybody, we get the opportunity to have a free week so there will certainly be some resting up, recovering and looking forward to go again.”
It’s the first time the Saddlers have had a scheduled free week for over a month and Sadler is keen to look after the players as they look to recover before next Saturday’s trip to Forest Green Rovers.
“We’ll recover and they’ll need to do that,” Sadler commented.
“They’ll get their time to do that because they need it, it’s been relentless and it goes to another Saturday-Tuesday after it so we have to get them away from the training ground for a couple of days, they’ve earned that, they’ve deserved that and then we’ll look to come in fresh when we come back into the building.
“I’m delighted with the efforts of everyone these last two/three weeks and we move forward again and look forward to the weekend’s game.”
Saturday’s game against Doncaster appeared to be in doubt in the morning given heavy rainfall the previous night but Sadler was keen to highlight the fantastic work the ground staff at the Poundland Bescot Stadium did to ensure the game went ahead and passed a pitch inspection.
“I have to give a shoutout to the ground staff who got the game on,” Sadler said.
“You saw so many games off in our league and the work they put in to get the game on, got the game on and part of us getting the three months was down to them so big thank you to Paul (Mason) and the team, they’ve done so well for us. It was a proper collective, team effort from everyone at the football club.”
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