James Clarke happy with Walsall’s latest business

Adan George, from Birmingham and Jake Scrimshaw, from Bournemouth, both joined on-loan until January on October 16.

The Saddlers were forced into the market due to Josh Gordon’s knee injury and with Birmingham and Bournemouth both willing to pay the full wages for George and Scrimshaw, skipper Clarke has praised the move.

“They’re good lads, young lads but ready physically for men’s football,” Clarke said.

“They’re waiting for their turn, but I’m sure they’ll be competition for places as there is all over the pitch.

“It’s very good business. Other teams want to blood their youngsters and they have to play somewhere.

“Under the gaffer here the squad will be changed around and everyone needs to be ready. We need players that can step up and from what we’ve seen I think they both can.”

Meanwhile, manager Darrell Clarke insists his side will fight for every League two point after their unbeaten run finally came to an end.

After a stretch of 13 league games without a loss, the Saddlers fell to a deserved 2-0 defeat at home to in-form Cambridge United on Tuesday night.

Walsall have only won two of their nine games this season, but Clarke is in it for the long haul as he aims to put right the points they have missed out on this year.

“You want to stay undefeated, but you want to win games,” he said. “We try to win every single game we play and that will continue from now until the end of the season. We have to take the disappointment. We’re probably five or six points worse off than we should be but it’s a long old season, plenty of points up for grabs and we’ll be fighting for every single one of them.”