Sutton v Walsall: Flexible Brandon Comley happy to help out as injuries bite

As Saddlers slipped out of the Trophy with a 2-0 defeat at home to MK Dons, Brandon Comley was moved to play at centre-back as Flynn patched together a side from a squad badly depleted by injuries.

And Comley, a midfielder by trade, impressed at the back in a performance described as close to faultless by the boss.

That performance could well give Flynn reason to mull his options for the trip to south London tomorrow, where it could be a choice between Comley and Peter Clarke at centre-half, should Donervon Daniels not be ready for a return to the side following a bout of illness.

And Comley says he is ready to help out wherever he is deployed to help his side get the right result.

“It’s good to get praise like that from the gaffer. It means a lot to me,” said Comley, who joined Flynn’s Saddlers in the summer.

“All I want to do out there is impress. Hopefully I did that on Tuesday. “

Playing at centre-half is not completely alien to Comley, who was deployed there in pre-season as well as in the EFL Cup first round victory over Swindon in August.

“I’ve had a few tastes of it before, both in pre-season and then in the home game with Swindon,” added Comley. “It’s something I enjoy doing. Whenever I am put somewhere I just want to do my best and hopefully I impressed there (on Tuesday). Sometimes you can see everything from the back and it can benefit midfielders, because you know where they want the ball and the diagonals they might pick up. Playing in the midfield can definitely help you at centre-back.”

Looking forward to tomorrow’s clash, Comley sees the trip to Sutton as an opportunity to push back up the League Two table.

Back-to-back league victories over Northampton and Wimbledon snapped their miserable run of 12 games without a win but they fell back into bad habits last weekend when conceding late to hand Mansfield victory and curtail their recent mini-revival.

But Comley is focusing on the positives, stating: “It’s one defeat in the last four in the league.

“We have to take the positives from Tuesday. We were unlucky against Mansfield, so we just have to band together and push forward.”

Overall, he has enjoyed his time Saddlers, while admitting results have tempered the experience slightly.

“Personally, I have enjoyed playing,” said the 26-year-old. “I have been a bit disappointed with a few results. I feel if a few things had gone our way we would be in a lot better position than we are. But we have to stick together and keep pushing because eventually it will fall our way.

“We are not a team that goes down easily, I would say. We will always fight to the end. It is not something we have in us, to just go under. “

“If we keep picking up points and try to hang on, stay with the other clubs up there, you never know what can happen. Hopefully we get some good form, a good run going, we will go up the table.

“We are still gelling, still finding our feet. We can’t keep saying that. We do now need to start pushing forward. But I do believe in this changing room that we have what it takes to push up the league. We’ll give our all to try and do that.”