George Dobson: Walsall have to do better

The Saddlers welcome Gareth Ainsworth’s side to the Banks’s Stadium hoping to kick-start a run that sees them play their next five matches on home turf.

Keates’ men enter the clash on the back of disappointing defeats at Luton and Southend – with those results seeing Walsall fall to 12th in League One.

And Dobson says it’s imperative the team recapture the form they showed at the start of the campaign.

“The quality – from all of us – has to be better,” Dobson said.

“We’ve let in too many sloppy goals.

“And we’ve got to be more ruthless in both boxes. Defensively we have got to be ruthless and when we are on the attack we have to be more ruthless.

“The quality from the midfielders has to be better and the quality from the forwards has to better.

“In the first six or seven games of the season we were providing the strikers with good opportunities. They would miss some but they would score some because they were getting those chances.

“But at the minute, we aren’t finding ourselves in the right positions. We aren’t creating enough chances.

“That means when we do get a chance we have to take it. But at the minute we aren’t. We have to get back to what we were doing.”

Walsall have conceded four goals from set-pieces in their last two outings.

And Dobson says it’s impossible to win games if you keep switching off when defending free-kicks and corners.

“It’s four goals we have conceded from set-plays in two games and it’s killing us,” the midfielder continued.

“That’s something we have to eradicate and eradicate quickly because set-pieces are one of the biggest in the football.

“If you are conceding four and not scoring any in two games, it doesn’t matter how well you play – you are going to lose.

“For 60 minute at Southend we dominated the game.

“We were on the ball and playing some good football. But we conceded that set-play and all of that good work has gone to waste.”