Mat Sadler has his say after Walsall draw at Cheltenham

Walsall looked destined to register a third successive win until late goals from former Saddlers striker George Miller and Jordan Thomas rescued a point for Cheltenham. 

Ellis Harrison had opened the scoring inside the opening 60 seconds and Albert Adomah climbed off the bench to score his 99th professional goal just 11 minutes from time. 

When asked what went wrong, Sadler said: "Nobody ever likes feeling like they've had something taken off them, do they? We did more than enough to win the game but we haven't.

"We go away and we have to see every game as 94 minutes as it was. There was enough time on the clock for them to get their couple of goals.  

"They threw caution to the wind looking for that one moment. It ends up being a deflected shot which loops up in the air and through to George Miller. 

"Sometimes such is a life, what can you do? On another day it deflects and goes the other way. For the majority of the game, I thought we restricted them to very few chances and then a long throw comes in and what can you do? 

"We're disappointed that it wasn't three points that we fully deserved but sometimes you have to reflect on the performance and I thought that was good."

Sadler reached a century of games at the helm for Walsall on the eve of his 40th birthday. 

Coming up against his Walsall predecessor Michael Flynn, Sadler has overseen a remarkable transformation since being appointed in the summer of 2023. 

But he insists that he has achieved nothing yet in the dugout.

He added: "I haven't achieved anything. 100 is a number of nothing, no substance to it. We're here to do something and we'll just keep going after that. 

"We're trying to build things forward and we want to give supporters a team to be proud of. The reaction they gave us at the end there is something that will live with me. 

"That was a fantastic reaction and they've seen a brilliant performance by us. Just on the night we didn't go away with the three points.

"I'm proud every time I represent this football club as a player, as a coach and now as a manager. I just want to give the supporters more to sing about." 

Charlie Lakin returned to the squad after missing the 2-0 win at Morecambe through illness and Sadler confirmed the midfielder was fit to come on.

"He would've been fine to come on. He trained Monday so he would've been fine," he revealed.