Troy Deeney's rallying cry to Walsall

Walsall striker Troy Deeney has sounded a rallying cry after insisting the time to deliver on their promotion promises has come.

The Saddlers are in bullish mood despite the new season being over two months away, but Deeney reckons the players have underperformed for too long.

The striker famously criticised his team-mates after the 2-0 defeat at Leyton Orient in March, accusing them of lacking fight, but has taken a more reasoned approach this time.

He said: "It's about hitting consistency and everyone stepping up to the plate and being accounted for. A few people went missing at times last season, I'm not having a go but people will admit that.

"You can't do that if you want to progress to the play-offs. We've all got to look to progress, so play-offs.

"We always do it – we go on a good run, get there or thereabouts and just fall short."

The Saddlers finished 10th, 18 points short of the play-offs last season, but with big guns Norwich, Leeds and Millwall all promoted League One is wide open next term.

Player of the Season Deeney has pointed to beaten play-off finalists Swindon as proof Walsall can gatecrash the top six.

The Robins lost 1-0 to Millwall last Saturday but the 21-year-old believes the Saddlers can take inspiration from their example.

He said: "Just look at Swindon, we did well against them both times so if you look at them now they're got to Wembley, look at Millwall as well.

"It's just the team that is consistent and plays well on a regular basis.

"They've obviously got a bigger budget than us but they haven't got great talent there, where you go 'bloody hell', like Southampton with Jason Puncheon and Rickie Lambert and those sort of players.

"These are just teams that are the same sort of level as us and they've all just got consistency going on."