Walsall boss Darrell Clarke wants to stop leaking cheap goals

The Saddlers head into the festive fixture at Salford in impressive form, having won their last four League Two games.

Some scintillating forward play has seen them move into eighth in the league, behind Saturday’s opponents and the play-offs on goal difference.

Walsall have scored 12 goals on this winning run, but lapses in defensive concentration has seen them concede five goals in their last two games.

Dan Scarr netted twice in the 4-3 win over Port Vale last week, but Clarke wants more from the towering defender and his team-mates.

When asked about Scarr’s performance against Vale, Clarke said: “I’ll play him up front because the way they defended wasn’t good enough.

“That’s five goals in the last two games so let’s not kid ourselves that everything is rosy.

“They have to defend better as a team. I’m not just digging Dan Scarr out, because he’s been tremendous, but we have to defend a lot better as a team.

“They’re the negatives of the game and a frustrating part.

“We have to defend better.

“The first goal (Tom) Pope, a bit of skill and goes through, but we defended sloppy there.

“The second one, the lad has put it into the top corner. You can’t do a lot about that free-kick in all honesty.

“They looked a danger at times where our defending needed to be better.

“But let’s take the positives. The squad coming together and what they’ve produced.

“We focus on that and look to improve.

“With the league table, at the end of the day it’s how you finish.

“We don’t get carried away, we know we have loads of improvement.”

Clarke may have a selection dilemma on his hands when Walsall travel to Salford after four half-time substitutions won them the game against Vale.

Jake Scrimshaw and Caolan Lavery will be hoping to start, while Mat Sadler could fill the hole at left-back.

The player-coach came on for 45 minutes and added some stability to the left side with a composed performance.

Zak Jules, George Nurse and Callum Cockerill-Mollett have all been injured, meaning no fit left-back has been available of late.

“He’s (Nurse) had a scan and the tendon has come back all clear,” Clarke added.

“It’s mainly nerves, to be honest with you, so he’s in a bit of pain.

“We’ll assess it and see how we go, and Wes (McDonald) is a doubt for the Salford game.

“We’ve got one or two others players who are just feeling it too, one or two niggles.

“So, we’ll see what we can put out against Salford.

“Callum is a couple of weeks away. He had a setback in training, and Julesy got injured at Oldham.

“We’re not ruling him out yet but, again, we’ll assess it.”

Hayden White is another player who will be hoping to keep his place in the team.

The defender was steady out of position at left-back the first half last week before putting in a superb second-half showing at right-back.

Cameron Norman’s form has kept him out of the team for much of the season and when asked for his thoughts on White’s performance, Clarke said: “There’s been very little wrong this season.

“We’ve given away rubbish goals and we haven’t taken our chances, that’s why we drew nine games.

“Now we’ve won seven and those nine draws look a lot better now. We’ve only lost three games and there’s not been a lot wrong.

“Players don’t always play every week because it is a squad game.

“Some players are on form and Cameron Norman has done really well. I know how good Hayden White is and how good the squad is capable of being. This is what players are doing, they are responding when they’ve come in and got the shirt. I can only ever play 11 players. You build a squad that is hopefully together and we’ve done that over a period of time. It doesn’t happen overnight.

“There’s a of players that have improved but we have to improve as a team.

“The signs are good, the togetherness is all there.”