James Baxendale: Walsall won't fear leaders

The Saddlers will become the latest team to try and put a dent in the progress of Steve Cotterill's side when they visit the Banks's on Saturday.

City have won seven and drawn three of their opening 10 fixtures to steal a five-point march over the chasing pack and have netted 21 goals in the process, making them the second highest scorers.

But buoyed by back-to-back home wins over Preston and Doncaster, Baxendale insists the Saddlers will approach the game with some confidence.

He said: "They (Bristol) are a fancied side but I think Preston would have been a fancied side and so are Doncaster – we have just put three goals past each.

"I don't think you can be fearful. I think if we inflict our gameplan on them it will be a good test.

"They are not going to come and lie down. I think they will watch our display from Saturday and analyse it and see how they can get at us."

Baxendale netted his first goal in more than a year in Saturday's 3-0 win over Doncaster and admits improved form has the team hopeful of building momentum after a stop-start campaign to this point.

He said: "You almost wished the next game was on Tuesday night so we can continue but we have the week now to freshen up and carry on to next week.

"We will have a good feeling around the training ground coming in after a 3-0 win. Consistency is the word but this league is very much up and down and on any given day anyone can beat anyone.

"All we can do is work hard daily to try and keep standards the same."

Baxendale felt the win over Doncaster was the Saddlers best all-round display of the season.

He said: "We got our reward in the second half with some really good football. It is up to us to continue to do that."