Walsall must 'ride through' setbacks - Sadler

Mat Sadler was won 44 and lost 31 of his 100 games in charge of Walsall

Walsall boss Mat Sadler says his stuttering side must "ride through" their setbacks and "remember what a good team" they are as they try to stay in control of the League Two promotion race.

The Saddlers' recent poor run of form continued with Saturday's 3-1 home defeat by play-off chasing Grimsby Town that stretched the Saddlers' wait for a win to four games.

Their lead at the top of the table remained two points after second-placed Bradford City's defeat at Gillingham.

Walsall's gap to the play-off places is currently eight points with AFC Wimbledon, in fourth, just two points off the automatic promotion spots and with a game in hand on the top three.

"I'm not going to make big things bigger than what they need to be, I'm never going to do that," Sadler told BBC Radio WM.

"I definitely won't not praise their efforts because I still think that they still worked extremely hard and still were trying to do the right things."

The Saddlers have lost only three times at their Poundland Bescot Stadium home this season - with two of those coming in the last two matches on their own patch.

The surface at the stadium, which has large sandy areas where the grass is not growing well, is "not very good" according to Sadler and is not helping their efforts to impose themselves as effectively as they would like.

"Clearly the pitch isn't helping anybody. It's not a very good pitch at the moment and it's very hard to get any sort of momentum in the game," Sadler said.

"I think we've seen that for the last two home games. It's having an impact because it's becoming very difficult to play."

'We are having a fantastic season'

Sadler says the improvement in the weather in the coming weeks should sort the problem out and is keen to focus on what his side has done to get into their current position, rather than look for excuses.

"The most important thing from my side of the fence is not to forget about what we've done previously - we are very, very good," he said.

"We've proven that countless times and we should all be proud of what a very good team we are.

"You get judged by those wins and we're looking forward to picking up that next win and maybe that will galvanise everyone to move on into that next stage.

"It's up to us to dust ourselves down and go again."

Walsall's recent slump in form has seen their lead shrink from 12 points to two as they followed a club record nine wins in a row with a run of two wins from their last 11, in a haul of 10 points from a possible 33.

But Sadler is adamant this sort of tricky spell is typical for this division.

"No-one should think anything other that it's a really competitive, long arduous league. It has proven that time and time again," he said.

"We've got to go after the next thing, keep believing in who we are and trusting who we are.

"We've just got to ride through any setbacks and maintain that belief.

"We're having a fantastic season and we're still in a fantastic position. We've just lost a couple of games and we have to move forward."

Walsall now face two away games, starting with Thursday's trip to Bromley before going to Gillingham on Saturday, 22 March.