Elijah Adebayo: Walsall strikers bonding well
Saddlers striker Elijah Adebayo insists the ‘bond’ between his fellow forwards will serve the club well this season.
In the team’s three games so far, Caolan Lavery has lead the line twice from the start, while Adebayo came in for the League Two opener against Grimsby and bagged the only goal of the game.
Josh Gordon, who is naturally a striker and was the team’s highest scorer last season, has been played out wide in all three fixtures – scoring once against Bristol Rovers in the EFL Trophy.
For Adebayo, he believes that competition for places is only a good thing for the team.
“We’ve got a good bond between the three of us and we know whoever plays will do a good job,” he said.
“Lavs and Flash have done excellent jobs in the last two games and it was my time today to come in and put a stamp down for a place and I think I’ve done that.
“We just have to see about next week. We’ll have a good week’s training and then whatever the gaffer decides.
“There is competition for places all over the pitch.
“From 12 months ago we were a brand new squad. Now we’ve been together for the last year and after the New Year you could see the team starting to gel.
“Now that we’re all comfortable and know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s about building what we did at the back end of last season.
“We know that the cohesion between the group is great and it’s about keeping that momentum.”
Meanwhile, Adebayo is keen to kick on after the coronavirus setback disrupted his fine Walsall form.
The 22-year-old netted three goals in the final two games of last season before the lockdown began and although it came at a bad time for him, he’s happy to be back.
“It’s strange for everyone but for me, you get these setbacks in football,” he added.
“It could have been something else, an injury or something, but it’s about bouncing back.
“I wanted to be in the box more and score more, leaving the stuff outside of the box to the outside of the box players.
“That’s what I’ve tried to brush up on my game. It was a difficult time for me, I thought to myself that I was really kicking on and that obviously slowed down the progression. We’re back now and back in the goals, so I’m happy.”
