Jon Whitney: Walsall will have 'no sympathy' for Shrewsbury Town

Saddlers will have a big say in the shake-up at the bottom end of the table as they take on Shrews tomorrow with clashes against fellow strugglers Swindon, Coventry and Port Vale to follow. And Whitney expects a difficult test against the Shrews, despite them hovering just one point above the League One drop-zone.

"It'll be a tough game. It was only a month past and I did a league table of the last 10 games, and ourselves, Shrewsbury and Fleetwood were up there," he added. "They've dropped off a little bit in the last month but they're still picking up the wins. They're a point off the bottom four and Port Vale have a game in hand, which is against us. I think we can have a big say in what happens at the bottom and it'll be the same with Swindon coming on Monday.

"We've got to make sure we enjoy that. We have no sympathy – we still have to finish as high as we can."

He added: "It'll be a tough game going to their patch. Again they're fighting for their lives so we have to at least match their tenacity and their desire, and hopefully we can then play our game and our quality can come through."

Shrewsbury provided the opposition when Whitney took charge of Saddlers for the first time after the departure of Dean Smith in 2015 as part of the 'three amigos' alongside Neil Cutler and John Ward.

That fixture resulted in a 3-1 win at the Greenhous Meadow and the trio remained in charge until the appointment of Sean O'Driscoll.

And he remembers well the trip to Shropshire: "That's a fond memory.

"That was the first time that the three amigos, myself, John and Neil, took over.

"We told the players 'keep doing what you're doing' and the energy that night was great.

"Fond memories last year, hopefully I'll have more fond memories come Friday night."