George Dobson: Walsall targeting a winning home run
George Dobson says it’s imperative Walsall make the most of a run that sees them play their next five matches at home.
The Saddlers entertain Wycombe at the Banks’s Stadium tomorrow looking to return to winning ways after falling to back-to-back defeats at Luton and Southend.
Those losses led to boss Dean Keates saying Walsall’s ‘good’ start to the season can now only be described as an ‘OK’ one with the team having slipped to 12th in the League One table.
And Dobson agrees with his manger’s assessment of things.
“I definitely agree,” the former West Ham man said. “If we had got three or four points from the last two games we would have been in a brilliant position.
“But now we have got zero, we are just OK.
“We have got a lot of things to work on and a lot of areas where we need to improve and be better.
“But we aren’t in a terrible position and there are three home games in the league coming up.
“We have got to go on run. We have got to be looking to pick up as many points as we can to get back on track and back into a position where we are looking up the table.”
Dobson admits Walsall’s players are hurting following their recent defeats on the road.
“We lost matches 2-0 and 3-0 in four days – that hurts,” the 20-year-old continued. “All the players are hurting. But we know what we have to do to get back on track.
“We are going to work on that and make sure on Saturday we put in a much better performance.
“Wycombe is a massive game. We have got to go out there, start on the front foot and do absolutely we everything we can to get the three points.”
While Walsall were beaten 3-0 at Roots Hall on Tuesday, Keates’ side had been more than a match for their opponents until Timothee Dieng put the Shrimpers two goals up in the 76th minute.
And Dobson says there are lot of lessons his team need to learn from their performance in Essex.
“After the performance at Luton we needed a reaction at Southend and first-half I thought we played well,” the skipper said.
“We got the reaction we were looking for.
“But again we have conceded a sloppy set-play.
“And when the second goal went in, our reaction wasn’t good enough. We conceded the second and we went to pot.
“We just weren’t clinical in the game. We have got to be more ruthless.
“We are a young team but that is no excuse.
“We have got to be better at the simple things.
“We have to improve, starting against Wycombe tomorrow.”
