Walsall v Cheltenham - Match preview

Saturday’s game was postponed due to a frozen pitch and quickly rescheduled to tonight as the Saddlers battle with a congested fixture list.

Walsall’s 3-0 loss away to Cheltenham in November is widely regarded as the club’s worst performance this season.

Now, midfielder Kinsella insists the side must ‘respond’ to the reverse fixture.

“I think last season they were one of the best teams we played and this season we went up to their place and they were a very strong team again,” Kinsella said.

“They beat us in the first game this season and we’ve got to respond, make sure everything is right and that’s what we’ve been doing this week.

“We’ve been preparing for this game and I feel we can give it a really good shot. Our performance that we’ve set wasn’t there at their place, we need to put things right when we play them again at home.

“There’s been a few games where you look back and think that we’ve dropped points and if you add all those up, we’d be in a better position than we are now.

“We’re going to take it game by game – Cheltenham on Tuesday and that’s all we can do, take it game by game and hopefully push on and end the season on a high.

“The confidence hasn’t gone, I don’t think the confidence will ever go with this bunch of lads. The confidence is still high and we go into every game thinking we can win it so hopefully we can do that on Tuesday and get the three points.”

Several individual mistakes have cost the Saddlers points this season, meaning they go into tonight’s game without a clean sheet in 17 games – 15 of those coming in League Two. Alfie Bates’ error allowed Mansfield to equalise last week and although Kinsella is still only 24 years old, he finds himself as a senior figure in the team. “In some games there have been mistakes,” Kinsella added.

“Mistakes happen and it’s about responding to that. It’s fine lines in this league and I feel like we’ve been in games where we’ve done well and things haven’t happened and we’ve been in games where we haven’t played well and we got some points. We take it game by game and we’ll go into the Cheltenham game few of confidence.

“We’ve got a young squad and a few experienced pros as well. The majority of the squad was here last year as well so we all know each other very well.

“The new lads that have come in have been brilliant and have settled in straight away. We’ve got a real feeling of togetherness here. Three or four years ago that used to be me looking up to the senior pros. Now I’m 24 and got a few games under my belt, I like to feel that responsibility if the younger pros want to come to me or be a role model for the younger kids.”