Nicky Devlin: Walsall deserve more on our travels

The Saddlers head to the Kassam Stadium having endured a mixed start to the 2017/18 campaign – with Jon Whitney’s side having impressed at home.

But results away from the Banks’s Stadium have been harder to come by with Walsall having lost four and drawn one of their five away matches this season.

Devlin though believes Walsall deserve better from their performances on the road. And the defender is confident an upturn in form is just around the corner.

“I don’t think we are putting in terrible performances away from – we just aren’t getting that we deserve,” the wing-back said.

“Rotherham was not good enough. As players we can only apologise for the performance we put in.

“But I think the Portsmouth game we should have won.

“At Bristol Rovers we shot ourselves in the foot. We should have won that game as well.

“But that is down to us, it’s up to us to fix that and put things right.

“It’s only at Rotherham we have been blown away. Even at Sheffield United – we were winning 1-0 until the 70th minute.

“We are not getting the results we deserve. But it’s only us who can change that and there is no better place to start than Oxford.”

Walsall are yet to win away from home in 2017 but Devlin believes you can sometimes read too much into statistics.

“I think the squad of players we have got now – we have played four away games in the league and two of them we should have won,” the former Ayr man continued.

“One of the games we didn’t perform. But it’s a new squad of players.

“With the greatest respect, I’m not too bothered about Walsall’s away form at the end of last season.

“I had nothing to do with it and that’s the same for all the new boys.

“We can’t do anything about that. We can only change it going forward.

“It’s not something we think about. We can’t control it. We can only concentrate on Saturday and getting a win at Oxford.”

Despite only joining the club in the summer, Devlin has quickly become a fans’ favourite at the Banks’s. And he admits he is enjoying the relationship he has struck up with Saddlers supporters.

“The fans have been great with me.” he added.

“I’m not really sure why. I’m a player that gives everything I can every time I play. But the support they have given me has been fantastic. Hopefully I can continue to repay them with my performances.”