Walsall boss Dean Smith spoke to his club's official website and the Express and Star ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park, Smith first looking back on the Saddlers drawing 0-0 at Griffin Park last weekend :
“We certainly never looked like losing at Brentford, we looked very organised and disciplined, which is good, and it is what you need when you are away from home. Unfortunately we didn’t just quite take the chances that came our way but certainly the performance levels at the moment are very good. The lads are playing with a lot of belief and a lot of confidence and that can only bode well.
“We are draw specialists at the moment, drawing a lot of games, I think we have only lost three in the last fourteen and we have only won two in the last fourteen as well, so I am sure the draw odds on us will come down. But, I think the belief and the confidence in the team is starting to come through and we look a very difficult team to play against, so pretty soon we are going to win a few games on the bounce and start pulling away from the danger area.
“We just need to start converting our chances, and as I said, at Brentford we were disciplined and organised and never looked like losing, but it is just taking the chances and killing the game off then. But, it is credit to the players in the way that they have got on with their jobs and their roles, there is a big togetherness in the team and a good spirit, and they will work for each other and get results. We certainly don't fear anyone at the moment. We're a hard team to beat and no-one will fancy coming up against us.
“Carlisle have had a fantastic season, all credit goes to Greg Abbott and Graham Kavanagh, they have done fantastically well and you only have to look at their last three results, which is a draw away at Huddersfield, beating Sheffield United and then a 4-1 win against Leyton Orient. So, they are doing a fantastic job there and it will be a tough game for us, they are one of the teams that fancies themselves to be pushing into the play-offs."
“So, a tough place to go for us, we went there and won last season and hopefully we can do that again this year, so we're looking forward to it and relishing the challenge that stands before us as we attempt to build upon last weekend's draw at Brentford. We’ve got no fear in going to any of the grounds – Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield or Carlisle – we just want to go and play. The games can’t come quick enough because we’re confident. I feel there are four, if not more, worse teams than us in the league.
“Oliver Lancashire and Kevan Hurst both played in the reserve game at Stoke this week, it was a bit of a rout in terms of Stoke but they did have £30million or whatever of talent on the pitch and we threw together a team really because we were trying to get lads minutes into them. I think we had six forwards on the pitch and it probably showed in the scoreline. They had Kenwyne Jones and Cameron Jerome upfront but it was an opportunity for a lot of the lads to shine, but we had to get the forwards on the pitch because they need to play minutes. So, we take nothing from it but the experience.
“Olly has certainly been training well in the last couple of weeks and he will be in contention, he played the full game in the reserve game and Kevan Hurst played 70 minutes, so he won’t quite be in contention to start but he is getting there. But, we’ve made enquiries on loans although we’ve been turned down by a couple, and we will continue to make enquiries until we can see what we can do. We aren’t reasonably close on anything but we have been only to have the door shut on us a couple of times as you normally do, but we will keep trying.
“We tried and I enquired about Jordan Cook in November but he wanted to see what else was out there in terms of Championship clubs. They’ve had a change of manager at Sunderland since and he’s gone to Carlisle. I haven’t touched base with him since we tried but with Jordan it was about the distance from where he was. Carlisle is a lot better, logistically, for him so it might have something to do with his move. We know a lot about him and played against him in the reserve League Cup final at the start of the season.”