Mat Sadler salutes Walsall's match-winner
Mat Sadler has praised Walsall frontman Danny Johnson for his "outstanding" attitude after his dramatic 88th minute winner secured a 2-1 win over Bradford City.
Johnson emerged from the bench on his first home appearance of the season to meet Albert Adomah's delivery with a cushioned header into the far corner.
The 31-year-old only returned from a viral infection, which kept him out of pre-season, at MK Dons last week. His winner propelled Walsall to three home league wins on the spin and Sadler has been impressed by his mentality after overcoming a difficult season last term.
He said: "The subs made a real impact today. Obviously Danny gets the headlines and rightly so. I'm so happy for him, his family and everyone connected with him.
"To go through what he's gone through and what I'll say is the attitude which he is showing is that it's a different Danny Johnson. He has just been a breath of fresh air to work with.
"Sometimes that happens, sometimes it takes things like that to bring a bit of perspective but he has been outstanding.
"I can't praise him enough and I'm so happy he's got that moment and hopefully many moments ahead."
Walsall dominated the first half and went ahead when Taylor Allen scored from the spot in the 19th minute after Charlie Lakin had been upended inside the penalty area.
They had another penalty claim turned away when Nathan Lowe appeared to be pushed as he ran through on goal immediately after Walsall's opener.
Jamille Matt and Lowe were also denied by Sam Walker, before Allen's poor clearance gifted Olly Sanderson an equaliser five minutes before the break.
Bradford had chances in the second half with Tommy Simkin twice called into action to thwart Cheick Diabate and Andy Cook in the second half.
Sadler felt his team should've been comfortably ahead inside the opening 35 minutes but was pleased with how his team found a different way to get the victory over the line.
"I thought for 35 minutes, we could've been three or four nil up. We were absolutely brilliant. The tempo we played at, the willingness to get the game going and the threat that we posed was evident.
"We worked on how we wanted to hurt them and I thought we did that over and over again. There was a slight lull before the goal and the tempo had dropped slightly.
"I was gutted for Taylor because we all know how good he has been and his penalty was brilliant as well but it's part and parcel of it.
"We came out well in the second half but they shifted shape and we had to work that out. We had to show a different side to us then and there was clearly a 10 minute spell when they were on top.
"So we had to defend for our lives in that penalty area and we did that."
