Stockport County v Walsall: Saddlers test Christmas form against the leaders

Walsall have moved to within three points of the League Two play-off places, after collecting five wins from their last six league games.

The Saddlers have pedigree when it comes to beating promotion contenders, as they demonstrated with victories over Notts County, Crewe Alexandra and Wrexham respectively last month.

But Sadler has declared that Christmas is over and that the remarkable run of results in recent weeks will only be significant if they back it up during the second half of the campaign.

“It’s funny how football flips because we spoke not so long ago about needing to pick up points away from home,” the Walsall boss commented on his side’s improvement on the road. “The key is that whatever happens in the past doesn’t affect the future. We just have to play the game that’s coming and that’s going to be a really tough game (against Stockport).

“We still need to be the chasing pack, we still need to be hunting the teams in front. That has to be how it is.

“That’s the mentality to take into the second half of the season. We certainly won’t be resting on anything that we’ve done so far because that doesn’t win you anything, or get us to where we want to be.

“We will continue to build, and using it as a platform isn’t a bad phrase, but it’s only platform if you continue to do the hard work that we need in order to do something.

“December has gone, Christmas has gone, the decorations are down, and now we have to move on.”

The Saddlers are chasing a fourth consecutive league win for the first time in over three years, whilst Stockport are winless in three.

Josh Gordon will be available for selection after returning to Bescot on loan from League One outfit Burton Albion yesterday.

The 29-year-old will help fill the void left by Freddie Draper, who was recalled by his parent club Lincoln City last week.

Ross Tierney (hamstring) and Ryan Stirk (ankle) could feature in the squad, although they remain doubts ahead of the weekend.

Joe Riley (knee), Harry Williams (muscle) and Jamille Matt (groin) are expected to be unavailable, whilst Aramide Oteh (hamstring) is not set to return until the start of February.

Sadler also revealed that Oisin McEntee will be out for the rest of the season after undergoing a successful surgery on his hamstring.

“Jamma (Matt) is one that I am looking at daily,” said Sadler. “So, I won’t know about that until later next week. Joe Riley could be ready for Accrington or Sutton, Harry Williams (will) probably be back for Sutton, and Aramide (Oteh) just after that. They are close. They are not a million miles away and the physios are working really hard to get them back.”