'Mat Sadler deserves praise for picking Walsall back up'

George Bennett and Jonny Drury discuss Walsall's 2-0 play-off semi-final first leg victory against Chesterfield.

Transcript

00:00Matt Sadler's very rightly, and he will probably admit that he was right

00:06to come in for, you know, a barrage of criticism in recent weeks

00:10and none more so than after that final game of the season.

00:13But, you know, to pick his players back up, you know,

00:18a lot of the other teams in that kind of playoff race

00:21have probably been hoping to get one,

00:22despite the fact that they've had a very good season,

00:24you know, when you look at it collectively.

00:26You know, they're going to be down on their knees,

00:28down and out almost going into the playoffs after missing out on it.

00:31So to pick them up in the way that he has done and get a result like that,

00:35you know, for all the criticism we give him,

00:38I think it's only right to praise him for what Walsall produced on Sunday.

00:42Yeah, I think so.

00:43I think, you know, it was always kind of,

00:47there was a fear of how much of a psychological blow that would have,

00:51you know, regardless of how they missed out.

00:55But, you know, clearly in the manner in which they did

00:57with kind of, you know, 30 to 60 seconds,

01:00whatever it was left on the clock,

01:02to then have that sort of final twist of the knife.

01:06And what was a final nail in the coffin, really,

01:09in their automatic promotion bid.

01:13You've sort of feared the worst, really.

01:15And you look at the form guide heading into it.

01:18And yes, Chesterfield might have just snuck into

01:20the final playoff spot,

01:22but they've lost once in 13 games.

01:24Walsall have won three games in 21.

01:27So, you know, you kind of look at that really in Chesterfield

01:30in many ways, especially in terms of recent form,

01:34headed into that as kind of the favoured side.

01:37And I think the way in which they performed was extremely professional.

01:42And we sort of talk about maybe the side's inability

01:46under Matt Sadler to play under pressure.

01:48That was a huge pressure match.

01:51And it felt like, you know,

01:52a real defining game in Matt Sadler's spell in charge.

01:56And the players produced the goods

01:58with a really solid performance.