'Exactly what we'd want them to do...' Mat Sadler's Walsall play-off claim

Walsall head into the semi-final first leg away to Chesterfield on Sunday having seen form collapse in the second half of the season for just three wins since January - including one on last weekend's final day.

That victory at Crewe was seconds from enough for automatic promotion, but rivals Bradford struck a 96th-minute winner to sneak third. One of Walsall's wins in their slump in form was a 3-1 Bescot success against play-off rivals Chesterfield in February.

But it is Paul Cook's Spireites who carry form and momentum into the two ties for a place at Wembley. The Derbyshire hosts have won eight of 13 and lost just once to make their late charge to seventh and there is little to split the fourth and seventh-placed sides in the bookmakers' odds.

"They're a good team, a really good team and it doesn't surprise me they have gone on that run because of the players they have," Sadler said.

"As always we have to focus on us. If anyone is writing us off then brilliant - that's exactly what we would want them to do.

"Because for us it creates that siege mentality for going into something that is different. The league has finished now, we finished fourth and now we move forward into a cup competition.

"It's completely different. The mindset is different anyway. We have to go into that ready to attack it positively. Ready to draw on the experience we've had this season in similar circumstances, like last Saturday and prepare for what is a really tough game.

"Most importantly we just have to prepare the team for the game in isolation and work on what makes us us."

Walsall will be backed by a sell-out allocation of just over 1,000 fans at Chesterfield's SMH Group Stadium with the return clash on Friday.