Matt Pennington: I'm loving life at Walsall

The 21-year-old centre-back was snapped up on loan from Everton back in March and has since gone on to star at the heart of Walsall's defence.

Pennington, who is highly thought of at Goodison Park, has previously enjoyed loan spells at Tranmere and Coventry and was crowned young player of year in the his time with the Sky Blues.

But both those temporary moves saw the youngster battling at the wrong end of the table, with the defender now looking to further enhance the Saddlers' automatic promotion hopes with victory over Swindon tonight.

Pennington said: "I'm enjoying every minute of being here and competing for promotion is brilliant, I've not experienced that side of this league before.

"I've been in a couple of relegation dogfights so it's a nice change and a different challenge for me.

"You look at our form and the results of the teams around us on Saturday, it's a really exciting time.

"We are now biting on the tails of the top two and we believe we can catch them."

Jon Whitney's side seem to have hit top form just at the right time after two impressive displays secured back-to-back victories over Gillingham and Southend.

Pennington, though, believes those results will count for nothing if the Saddlers don't beat Swindon tonight.

He said: "It's another home game and a game we need to be winning. The performance against Southend was the perfect reaction to the Gillingham win.

"We got the three points to push us up the league and keep the pressure on those ahead of us.

"But we had to put the game to bed and move on to Swindon quickly. We need to get another three points there because otherwise it's for nothing, isn't it?"

An outstanding goalkeeping display from goalkeeper Daniel Bentley meant the Saddlers left it late to secure victory over Southend on Saturday.

But while Jordy Hiwula sent the Banks's crowd wild with his 88th-minute winner, Southend boss Phil Brown went on record to say he didn't believe the striker's effort had crossed the line.

Pennington had also gone up to try and grab a winner, after Walsall had forced a corner, and the defender insisted referee Keith Hill made the correct decision.

He said: "Sometimes it's hard to break teams down when they put a lot of players behind the ball. We created a lot of chances against Southend, but they didn't seem to want to go in.

"But we deserved to get that winner in the end. You've always got to believe and with the quality we've got in the team you always feel someone will pop up and put one away.

"It was a goal. Definitely. I thought it went over. But you've got to appeal for them anyway, haven't you! We'll take that all day!"

Pennington was also impressed with the Banks's crowd on what was his home debut.

He said: "It was the first time I had played at home so it was great to see the fans and they were all behind us, willing us to get that goal. It was great to send them home happy."