Leaders Walsall 'relaxed' despite winless run - Matt

Jamille Matt scored 19 league goals to help Forest Green win promotion from League Two in 2021-22

League Two leaders Walsall are "relaxed" despite their five-game winless run which has seen their lead cut at the top of the table, says striker Jamille Matt.

The Saddlers won nine successive league games in December and January to move 12 points clear at the top and 15 ahead of fourth place.

After taking just two points from five matches since, those gaps have been reduced to seven points and eight points respectively going into this weekend's games.

However, Walsall have overall collected 29 points from their past 14 games, a haul which Matt said they would have taken beforehand.

"If we had not gone on that run that we went on of nine wins on the trot and we'd maybe won a couple, drawn one and lost one and be seven points clear then everyone would look at it completely differently," he told BBC Radio WM.

"It's all in perspective, it's all in context. We're relaxed and we're looking forward to the next game."

Matt, who scored his 10th goal of the season in Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Gillingham, won promotion from League Two with Forest Green Rovers in 2022.

He holds a degree in counselling psychology from Wolverhampton University, but said it was more experiences from his career - including that successful campaign - that he was trying to pass on to more junior team-mates who are involved in their first promotion challenge.

"It's a long, hard season and things are going to change all the time," said Matt.

"My message is to stay as calm and level as possible. At this stage of the season it gets tough but we need to stick to doing what we do best."

Mat Sadler is in his second season in charge of Walsall and signed a new long-term contract last month

There was a sense of nervousness around Poundland Bescot Stadium during the draw with the Gills, but Walsall boss Mat Sadler said the mood within the dressing room is "very calm" about the situation.

"There's always that tendency to make things bigger than what they are and in any single game, at any single point in the season, there's a nervousness about watching a game," said Sadler.

"For me, normal service resumes. All that really matters in those moments in the game is that we're switched on, we're bright and we try to play our way.

"For the most part on Tuesday we did that. In large spells it was a really good performance. We played our stuff, our way, we had a really good shape about us and we played on the front foot.

"That's what we will continue to do, and it will bring wins, it will bring goals for and goals against - that's football."