Dean Smith pleased with 'solid' Walsall draw
Manager Dean Smith was pleased with a "solid" Walsall performance after they drew 0-0 at Gillingham.
The Saddlers responded to Tuesday night's 4-0 defeat at Rochdale by recording their fourth clean sheet of the League One season to date.
They had the better chances to win it, with Ashley Grimes missing the best of the game when he sliced wide from close range.
But in the context of the week, manager Dean Smith was more than satisfied with the display.
"I thought it was a decent performance today," he said. "They (Gillingham) had their tails up on the back of a really good win on Tuesday over Peterborough, while we were smarting after our defeat.
"I thought we were solid. I don't remember Richard O'Donnell having to make a save. He had to be alert a couple of times coming off his line to collect in the first half and we had to deal with a lot of set pieces.
"But I thought we had the better chances. In the first half Ashley Grimes had a couple of chances and Bax had a super chance in the last 10 minutes but just failed to hit the target with the header."
Smith made three changes to the team which lost at Spotland with Ashley Grimes, James Baxendale and Adam Chambers – recovered from an ankle injury – back in the line-up.
Smith added: "I changed the team today and to be honest nobody could have had any complaints about how I changed the team and I thought we worked hard.
"I was scathing about the back five after Tuesday and I spoke to the players again on Thursday and just said I thought it was a one-off because we have never had those kind of performances from those players before and today they went and showed what they can do. That gives us a platform."
