Mat Sadler grateful for a rest after ‘relentless’ Walsall start

This weekend’s game against Bromley has been postponed due to international call-ups on both sides, leaving the Saddlers without a game until October 19.

That will almost certainly mean they lose their spot at the top of the table, which they claimed on Saturday with a 2-2 draw at Chesterfield.

But Sadler is grateful for a rest from action, particularly with Walsall having played 15 times – 10 in the league, five in cups – over the first two months of the campaign.

“The break has probably come at a decent time for us because we get to use the time to get all the guys that haven’t been playing right up to speed on the training ground,” said Sadler. “It’s been relentless.

“It’s been Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday, but not only that it’s been proper games that we’ve played in.

“Even going back to Birmingham in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy game, that’s a proper game that you’re playing in there, the same goes for the Leicester game.

“You’ve got to work your absolute socks off to get anything out of those games and to produce what we’ve produced, so I’m so pleased by what we’re doing at the moment.

“The job, as we all know, is to make sure we keep at it.”

Nathan Lowe scored twice as Walsall gained a point at Chesterfield, four days after their 6-2 humiliation by Fleetwood Town at the Bescot.

And though it put the Saddlers to the summit, Sadler is not concerned by losing that position this weekend.

“We’d have been pleased (to be top after 10 games) by it, but it means nothing,” he said. “It means we’ve had a good start, but we’ve just got to use this period to train and to rest, maybe mentally switch off slightly before we all start working together towards the next game.”

That next game is a trip to Grimsby Town on Saturday week – the start of another three-game week that will also see the Saddlers host Carlisle United and travel to Accrington Stanley.