Walsall urged to get on front foot against hapless Southend

Southend visit the Banks’s tomorrow not only sitting rock-bottom of League Two, but in a desperate situation as a whole.

Winding up orders, a transfer embargo and a disillusioned fanbase, the Shrimpers are really struggling and the Saddlers are the overwhelming favourites for this clash.

And Dutton, although he knows not to think of it as a ‘gimme’, wants Walsall – who have not been free-scoring as of late – to relish that expectation.

“We approach it with us wanting to be on the front foot and wanting to be the protagonists,” he said.

“You’re a fool if you take any team lightly in League Two, there’s no gimmes out there.

“As much as Southend looks a gimme on paper, if you break their games down they’ve been unlucky in games.

“We watched the Boreham Wood game and they hit the crossbar and created many opportunities.

“We won’t be taking them lightly that’s for sure, but we’ll be trying to be the protagonists in that game.”

The Saddlers are getting back going in the league after a couple of narrow losses in both the FA Cup and Papa John’s Trophy – to League One sides Bristol Rovers and Oxford.

Southend, meanwhile, lost to National League side Boreham Wood on penalties in the Cup last weekend before a crushing 6-1 defeat to rivals Colchester in the Trophy on Tuesday.

On whether that thrashing changes things drastically going into tomorrow, Dutton said: “Not from our point of view, but maybe from their point of view.

“Hopefully it is a little bit of confidence zapped from them, but as far as we’re concerned we’re playing top of the league. We’ll approach it with that mentality.”

Both teams, of course, have lost their last couple – but Walsall are looking at the positives from those defeats, having ran two sides from the league above close.

And while being out of both the Cup and the Trophy is not ideal in terms of finances, Dutton insists is allows them to focus fully on the league and climbing the table over the coming weeks.

The Saddlers are 12th with three wins, seven draws and a solitary loss so far, and Dutton added: “All our eggs are in one basket now, League Two.

“The lads will have the bit between their teeth from now until the end of the season.

“They know what they need to do and what they need to achieve.

“We’ll all be focused on that and looking forward to that challenge.”

Full-back Cameron Norman shares that view, too, as he said: “The positives to come from those two cup games are that we’ve run two good League One sides very close.

“We were actually disappointed with both of those results, so there’s positives in everything we’ve been doing recently.

“We are just waiting for it all to come together and click, and we are really confident with the work we do every day at the training ground that will happen – and we will keep growing and keep building.

“There have been lots of encouraging signs. The results have not followed but we’ve taken a lot of positives from those performances, playing those League One sides.

“Of course, we were disappointed not to get the results we wanted, but there’s positives to take into the league and this game.”

On the team front, goalkeeper Liam Roberts has been carrying a slight knock.

Jack Rose impressed between the sticks against Oxford and could come in if Roberts is not right.

Danny Guthrie is in contention after returning from a spell on the sidelines as a substitute against the U’s.

This game, though, may come too soon for both George Nurse and James Clarke, although neither of their problems are thought to be long-term, while striker Josh Gordon continues to work on recovering from a medial knee injury.