Watch Ashley Grimes go now, says Walsall boss Dean Smith

Grimes scored his first goal in 22 months in last Sunday's 1-1 draw with Gillingham.

Smith hopes the 27-year-old will kick on after admitting the long wait had been preying on the former Bury man's mind.

"Ashley's certainly got over that psychological block," he said. "He scored against Swindon last month but saw it ruled out for offside when he wasn't.

"At times he probably could have been forgiven for thinking everything was against him.

"But we know we've got a really good player in Ashley and now he's got his first goal, hopefully he goes on and scores a lot more."

Grimes, described by Smith as one of the best finishers he had ever seen when he joined the Saddlers last summer, finally broke his duck in his 26th appearance for the club.

With top scorer Tom Bradshaw set to miss the next fortnight with a hamstring injury, Grimes will get another chance to stake his claim for a regular place though Smith admits playing as an out-and-out striker may not be his strength.

"Being the leading one is a push for him," said Smith.

"He can certainly see a pass and he creates things as well as scores – thankfully he's got that goal so we can actually say he scores now.

"I think his best position is probably off the front man but he can play any one of the four up there to be honest.

"He understands the game, he's got good movement and his link-up play is tremendous."

After signing Jordy Hiwula on a month-long loan from Manchester City at the start of the week, Smith is unlikely to delve into the market when the emergency loan window re-opens on Monday in spite of losing Bradshaw.

"If I need to go back into the loan window I will but I've got two young lads in Jordan Murphy and Amadou Bakayoko – who will be back in a couple of weeks – who have been out and got experience," he said.

"Ama has not been playing as much the last few weeks since the manager has gone at Southport but Jordan has certainly had a lot of exposure playing for Worcester in the FA Cup and he's come back a much better player.

"So we've got a lot of young lads who can come in but we've also got Grimesy who I'm really pleased has got off the mark and Cookie (Jordan Cook) who can play up there as well. "

"So we've got a number of players."

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