Paul Downing: Walsall can fire on all fronts

The Saddlers are back in league action at home to Barnsley tomorrow, four days after their thrilling penalty shootout win at Tranmere took them into the last four of the JPT.

And centre-back Downing, who netted the winning spot-kick in the 5-4 shoot-out win, is conscious that Dean Smith's men have a second avenue open to Wembley via the play-offs if they can maintain their recent upturn in fortunes.

He said: "We've got some tough games coming up but we want to climb the league and get ourselves in a position to try to make the play-offs as well as looking forward to the area final in January.

"We've got a couple of games now before Christmas and it's a very congested league so we've got to make sure we are ready to perform.

"We've been on a good run lately and as long as you can start turning draws into wins you can climb the table.

"We've got to beat some good teams but there's a lot of confidence in that dressing room that we will take from Tuesday so we will look forward to Saturday's game at home and hopefully take the three points."

The Saddlers battled back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Prenton Park before triumphing on penalties. And Downing believes the same battling spirit can serve them well in league action.

"I'm sure not many people thought we could come back from 2-0 down and that's a credit to what's in the dressing room.

"And we've got to take that into the league for the rest of the season that if we are behind, we have that belief to get back into the game."

Reflecting on his winning strike, Downing said: "It was magnificent. It came so quickly really going up there for the winning penalty and I was just delighted to score for the lads and get us through.

"We've got a good opportunity now, we are far into a competition where you have got a realistic chance to get to Wembley."