Walsall defy gloomy forecast with 100-per-cent start

WALSALL have carried on this season from where they left off last time out: defying the pundits predicting their slump.

Dean Smith’s men have won both their games so far thuis season. After defeating Tranmere 3-1 at home on the opening day, the Saddlers made it into the second round of the Capital One Cup with a

2-1 win at Port Vale on Tuesday.

These triumphs arrived despite several players departing the Banks’s Stadium during the summer. Strike duo Will Grigg and Febian Brandy left for rivals on free deals, while Jamie Paterson stepped up to the Championship with Nottingham Forest. Between them they scored 40 of the side’s 71 goals last season.

But Smith has already proven himself adept at working on a shoestring budget. In has come loaned Chelsea striker Milan Lalkovic, a Slovakia under-21 international who netted on debut against Tranmere, while the likes of Ashley Hemmings and James Baxendale stepped into a team full of youthful energy and with a determination — like Athletic — to play their game even against rough-and-tumble opponents.

With ex-Athletic loan man Sam Mantom pulling the Saddlers’ strings in midfield, Saturday’s game at Boundary Park is expected to one of League One’s more attractive contests.

Lee Johnson, who hopes to match or better Walsall’s ninth-place finish last term, will have to get his men grafting to move his men above the visitors in the embryonic League One table.