Walsall v Crawley: Match preview

After the opening 10 games in League Two, Saddlers sit middle of the pack with two wins and seven draws and a solitary loss.

On the other hand, the Red Devils have won five of their games and sit seventh in the division.

At the weekend they won against Cambridge United, the only team to beat Walsall this campaign, but Osadebe insists the hosts have the quality to dominate Crawley.

“We’re at home so we should dominate and put the game away early,” he said. “It’s about turning up, enjoying the build up and doing it. We’re positive, 100 per cent positive and we can get that win at home.

“We take each game as it comes, win after win is the aim.

“We have the players here and the quality. We have defensive quality, midfield quality and forward quality.”

Osadebe has yet to score for Walsall in his first season at the club, but has hit the woodwork several times already – including his impressive volley in injury time on Saturday that smashed the crossbar.

The 24-year-old believes one stroke of luck will open the floodgates and send him on a goal-scoring run.

“I genuinely feel like I need just that one,” Osadebe added.

“I’ve hit the crossbar or post four times and I’ve had chances where the goalkeeper has saved two or three.

“I just need that one.

“I feel that if I get it, that’s it, me and the team will keep scoring.

“Right now I don’t feel that the luck is with us.

“It comes down to our own doing at times, giving away sloppy goals, but once we get that goal or win, things will change for sure.”

Although Walsall have only won two games in 10, they have been unlucky not to win more with some individual errors costing them dearly.

With a growing sense that they are close to putting together the perfect performance, manager Darrell Clarke insists that is not good enough as he aims for a greater points tally in the next 10 fixtures.

“I don’t want to be close,” he said.

“We have to do better in the next 10 games.

“So I’ll sit down with the whole squad and staff and decide where we can all get better, that’s myself as well.

“Assess the first 10 games. In that you’ll see four penalties conceded, individual sloppy errors for goals, numerous chances missed.

“We have to improve those areas and make sure the next 10 games are stronger points-wise.”

When asked if the answers are in the current crop of players, Clarke added: “Yes. There’s some great characters in there.

“We played a team (Mansfield) that has double our budget, without a shadow of a doubt.

“A team that should be right up there and on another day a point at Mansfield would be a decent point, but they’re on a bad run.

“We’re frustrated because we thought the three points were up for grabs and I thought our performance edged that.”

On an injury front, only captain James Clarke is expected to be missing.

The centre-back was taken off with a knock in the draw to Barrow over a week ago and his manager said he will likely miss two or three weeks of action.

Danny Guthrie withdrew with tight muscles on Saturday but did not suffer a serious injury.