Stevenage v Walsall preview: Saddlers will never give up the fight says Brandon Comley

The midfielder admits players are scratching their heads at a sequence of eight draws and two defeats in the last 10 matches which has left hopes of making the League Two play-offs hanging by a thread.

One of the toughest teams to beat or score against in the division, the Saddlers have been let down by a meagre goal return, particularly since the January exit of top scorer Danny Johnson.

Michael Flynn’s men have failed to net in six of their last nine games, with Tuesday’s 0-0 home draw example the prime example of a win which got away due to their struggles in front of goal.

Comley said: “It is super frustrating for us. The chances we create, the opportunities we get you would think we would get a lot more from these games.

“I can’t tell you how much it is frustrating us as a team. We are looking at each other thinking; ‘What else can we do?’.

“But we will keep working, keep trying to figure it out and go out there and keep pushing. The gaffer is doing everything he can do and so are the coaches to get us moving in the right direction and get those goals.

“The belief is still there. That will never die. We have a team who all believe in each other and want to push on to get where we want to go.”

Despite the gap to the top seven now standing at 12 points, Comley insists players have not given up hope of bridging the gap. The 27-year-old also acknowledged the importance of the Saddlers enjoying a strong finish to the campaign, regardless of where they end up in the table to ensure a campaign with plenty of positives doesn’t fizzle out.

“We don’t want to finish on a low, that is the last thing we want to do,” he said. “Even if we don’t get to where we want to, we want to finish on a high, so you can go and kick on next year.

“But the focus is on this season. It isn’t over until we mathematically can’t get there and even then, we will keep trying to do something. We are going to keep kicking.”

Walsall’s last league win was at home to Mansfield on New Year’s Day and they will face a third-placed Stevenage team who have themselves won just once in seven and are coming under pressure from the chasing pack.

Though the Saddlers were unable to force victory against Bradford, Comley believes the performance was a step forward after last weekend’s defeat to Barrow saw Flynn deliver a withering public criticism of his team.

“The boys are together,” he said. “We said to ourselves we had to push on and not go under.

“It has happened to us before where we have lost the game and another but we said to ourselves that is not happening, we are going to bounce back and get the three points. We didn’t but we gave ourselves a platform to build on.”