George Bennett and Jonny Drury discuss Walsall's 2-0 play-off semi-final first leg victory against Chesterfield.
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00:00Matt Sadler's very rightly, and he will probably admit that he was right
00:06to come in for, you know, a barrage of criticism in recent weeks
00:10and none more so than after that final game of the season.
00:13But, you know, to pick his players back up, you know,
00:18a lot of the other teams in that kind of playoff race
00:21have probably been hoping to get one,
00:22despite the fact that they've had a very good season,
00:24you know, when you look at it collectively.
00:26You know, they're going to be down on their knees,
00:28down and out almost going into the playoffs after missing out on it.
00:31So to pick them up in the way that he has done and get a result like that,
00:35you know, for all the criticism we give him,
00:38I think it's only right to praise him for what Walsall produced on Sunday.
00:42Yeah, I think so.
00:43I think, you know, it was always kind of,
00:47there was a fear of how much of a psychological blow that would have,
00:51you know, regardless of how they missed out.
00:55But, you know, clearly in the manner in which they did
00:57with kind of, you know, 30 to 60 seconds,
01:00whatever it was left on the clock,
01:02to then have that sort of final twist of the knife.
01:06And what was a final nail in the coffin, really,
01:09in their automatic promotion bid.
01:13You've sort of feared the worst, really.
01:15And you look at the form guide heading into it.
01:18And yes, Chesterfield might have just snuck into
01:20the final playoff spot,
01:22but they've lost once in 13 games.
01:24Walsall have won three games in 21.
01:27So, you know, you kind of look at that really in Chesterfield
01:30in many ways, especially in terms of recent form,
01:34headed into that as kind of the favoured side.
01:37And I think the way in which they performed was extremely professional.
01:42And we sort of talk about maybe the side's inability
01:46under Matt Sadler to play under pressure.
01:48That was a huge pressure match.
01:51And it felt like, you know,
01:52a real defining game in Matt Sadler's spell in charge.
01:56And the players produced the goods
01:58with a really solid performance.