Walsall will bounce back from defeat says Jason McCarthy

Despite the Saddlers dominating at the Banks's Stadium, an 84th-minute free-kick from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas saw the Gills snatch a 2-1 victory on Saturday.

It was the second time in as many games Walsall endured late heartbreak with MK Dons netting a stoppage-time equaliser in a 1-1 draw seven days earlier.

And McCarthy says the squad are determined to put the disappointment behind them and return to winning ways at Rochdale tomorrow.

"I felt the result against Gillingham was unjust," he said. "But that is the run we are on. We have got to take our chances and we had plenty of them.

"At MK Dons, we deserved to win the game and I think we deserved it even more against Gillingham.

"We have got to take it on the chin and take the positives from it. We said in the dressing room, one free-kick doesn't make a bad performance.

"We were so dominant. But we have to learn to take our chances when we are on top. We will bounce back. It is nobody's fault. We will bounce back and we are looking to get back to winning ways at Rochdale. Make no qualms about it, we will be going there for all three points."

McCarthy netted his second goal of the campaign against the Gills after cancelling out Cody McDonald's early opener. But with the Saddlers facing Rochdale, Southend and Sheffield United in the space of a week, McCarthy believes his side needs to quickly develop a ruthless streak.

"A few things didn't go our way against Gillingham but hopefully those moments will start to fall for us because we have got three big games coming up," he said.

"Rochdale is away from home. We will look at their strengths and weaknesses and see how we can get at them.

"Our performances recently have been good. We have just got to be a bit cuter and a bit more intelligent.

"We have got to take our chances and relieve the pressure a little bit. I think if we had scored when we were on top against Gillingham, we would have gone to get three or four."