Jonny Drury and George Bennett discuss Walsall's early season form - and their rise back to the top of the League Two table. After their end of season collapse and subsequent play-off heartbreak - the Saddlers endured a summer of change across the squad. Manager Mat Sadler also faced pressured from certain sections of the fanbase - and was in need of a good start to the new campaign. Eight wins from the first eleven games sees the Saddlers sit top of the pile heading into the weekend's game against Crawley. George and Jonny discuss the superb Walsall start - and why Mat Sadler deserves credit for the Saddlers bouncing back from last season's disappointment.
00:00After the disappointment of the end of last season, he has kind of answered a few critics and doubters very, very quietly.
00:07And as his side sitting kind of top of the pile, you know, how impressed are you?
00:12And did you kind of envisage this coming after the kind of heartbreak of last season?
00:20I'm really impressed with how they've started the season.
00:23And I think it was not necessarily a must to be in the position that they are,
00:27but clearly they needed to avoid a slow start with the way last season ended.
00:32I think there was a lot of dissatisfaction among the supporters and rightly so with the way the previous campaign ended.
00:39So, you know, a good start was needed.
00:43But I think, you know, Walsall have kind of exceeded expectations.
00:46I kind of went into the campaign unknown really as to how Walsall would fare.
00:52It's been a huge overhaul when you look at, I think it's 10 players left.
00:5814 players came through the door.
01:00If you exclude Johnny Stuttle, who was obviously recalled following his ACL injury by Bournemouth in August.
01:06So it's been a massive turnaround.
01:08So you kind of, there's maybe a concern over this quite a few players who we didn't necessarily know how they would fare.
01:19When you look at someone like Harrison Burke, maybe Courtney Clark, but the recruitment's been strong so far.
01:26And yeah, he's put together a real strong squad who looked like they could mount another push for promotion.
01:33And just sort of looking at the way in which they started the season, it is 25 points.
01:38I mean, you know, you're kind of having to go all the way back to the playoff winning campaign under Ray Graydon in 2000 and 2001 to find the last time that Walsall had amassed so many points after 11 games.
01:53They had 26 at that stage.
01:55I mean, even in Richard Money's League 2 title winning season, they had 24 at this stage.
02:02And last season, they had 22.
02:05So, you know, it's a really strong start to the season.
02:08And just hopefully they can carry on.
02:11I think that will be the kind of main concern that will be on Walsall fans' mind.
02:16And rightly so, you know, there's going to still be that pessimism there because of the way that last season unfolded.
02:23But all they can do at the moment is beat what's in front of them and the results and the performances, but especially the results.
02:29And the way in which they've got those results have been massively key.
02:33I mean, you look at the defensive record, it's under a goal conceded, 0.8 conceded per 90, which is the joint best in the league.
02:46And yeah, I mean, nine conceded.
02:49I think their XG conceded is 10.5.
02:53So it just shows how well they're defending their penalty area.
02:56And it's the typical sort of Sadler Bull style in the fact that, you know, lowest possession figures in the league, as was the case really last season.
03:07I think it's the fewest accurate passes per 90 in the league.
03:11But it shows how clinical they've been in front of goal.
03:14I mean, they've got an XG at 12.5, but they've scored 17 goals, which bodes really well.
03:22I think it's 3.3 shots on target per 90, which is its 18th in league two.
03:28So, you know, not necessarily creating huge amounts, but nonetheless being clinical with the chances they've got.
03:36And yeah, it's been a real good start.
03:39And it's one that Sadler definitely needed.
03:43Yeah, he certainly did.
03:44You know, you fired a ruck of statistics at me there, George.
03:48So my head's a bit fried now, but you talked there about the summer recruitment.
03:54And we talked about Matt Sadler.
03:56You know, you can't kind of credit one single person for this start to the campaign.
04:02And it is very early, we will say.
04:04But, you know, Matt Sadler had a lot of critics to kind of answer after kind of the way the end of the season unfolded.
04:10But does it kind of, the fact that he's bounced back like this, albeit being very early, does it underline the quality, his quality as, you know, still a relatively young manager?
04:21Yeah, I think so.
04:23I think the key was changing the tone.
04:26You could easily harp on about last season.
04:28But very quickly, you could see that, you know, he was keen to learn from the lessons.
04:34And I think we're gradually starting to see the lessons that he learned from last season.
04:40You know, I mean, the response from the bench, especially against Bristol Rovers, was key.
04:46So, you know, his in-game management definitely came to the fore in that one.
04:51But I think the key was definitely changing the tone.
04:54And that was sort of echoed by the board.
04:56I remember Lee Pomlett saying, you know, we can't go into next season talking about the different stages where we, it could have been different.
05:06You know, we could have won promotion.
05:07This has to be a new season.
05:09This has to be a new chapter.
05:10And I think that was kind of lost on supporters at the time.
05:13And rightly so, because, you know, those scars were definitely still visible.
05:17You know, it was definitely still raw at that point.
05:22But he was also right in the fact that, you know, this is a new team.
05:26I mean, you know, you look at the start of the season and I think Jamie Jealous in that opening game against Swindon was the only survivor of the XI, which lost at Wembley.
05:35I mean, you know, why should those players who have come through the door in the summer just gone?
05:41Sort of, I guess, they're the responsibility of their predecessors.
05:48And, you know, you look at it and it very much is a new look side.
05:52I went for it on the last pod we did in terms of just how different this team looks to the previous campaign now.
05:59So, yeah, I think that was the key, you know, straight away, just put in last season in the past.
06:07And, yeah, it has a very different feel to things now.
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