Dean Smith eyeing a Walsall FC surge

They extended their winless run to 12 games but Saddlers manager Smith reckons Saturday's 2-2 draw at Crawley can turn their stuttering campaign around.

It kept them 17th in League One ahead of tomorrow's trip to leaders Tranmere and Smith felt it was a statement of intent.

"I hope it's a corner turned. The lads can certainly take a lot of heart from it. We were excellent from start to finish," he said, with the Saddlers still searching for their first win since September.

"We're on a bad run at the moment, we've been looking to get back to winning ways and we thought we should have done.

"We will stick to the way we want to go. When you go to places like Crawley you have to be together to start with because they have really good players.

"I'm very pleased for the players because they worked really hard for the result and we're disappointed we didn't get all three points.

"We're disappointed we didn't get the win we felt we deserved but we played well.

"Maybe I'll have to follow the coach in my car again. I had a sickness bug on Thursday night and it ripped through the whole family.

"I didn't want to mix in with the lads."

Febian Brandy's first goal for three years and Ashley Hemmings' second of the season twice put them ahead.

Billy Clarke and Jonathan Forte levelled and, despite Joe Walsh's late red card, the Saddlers couldn't find a winner.

Smith added: "Febian played 35 minutes last week against Swindon, 80 against Lincoln and he's just starting to get his fitness back.

"He looks bright and I'm really pleased with him."

And Hemmings insisted the Saddlers had to prove a point after being dumped out of the FA Cup by nonleague Lincoln last week.

"We should have won the game," said the former Wolves winger, who scored his first goal since August.

"It's about having a point to prove because we set a standard and in recent games we haven't been playing to that standard. Everyone has got together, wanted to get back to that standard and, on Saturday, we were."