Mat Sadler pleased with Walsall’s second-half response against Bristol Rovers

Mat Sadler was pleased Walsall “problem-solved” after they came from behind to retain top spot in League Two following a 2-1 win against Bristol Rovers.

Two goals inside nine minutes from Aaron Pressley turned the afternoon in favour of the hosts after Fabrizio Cavegn had given Darrell Clarke’s side the lead before the break.

It was a classic game of two halves – as both managers acknowledged afterwards.

Sadler said: “I’ve spent all week watching Darrell’s teams – he’s amazing at seeing what the game looks like and changing.

“When you’re trying to prepare, you don’t know what it’s going to look like – and we did not 100 per cent prepare for them to line up as they were.

“Credit to them, it took us 45 minutes to work it out and we were desperate to get in at half-time and sort it out.

“We made a couple of adjustments at the break and I thought the athleticism we managed to bring on got us back in the ascendancy.”

Bristol Rovers took the lead when Cavegn grabbed his fourth goal in as many games, turning neatly inside the box before firing into the bottom corner.

Walsall slowly grew into the game after the break and drew level 20 minutes from time when Pressley nodded home a superb left-wing cross from Vincent Harper.

Sadler continued to ring the changes and, after good work down the left by Albert Adomah, Connor Barrett made his way into the area on the right before feeding Pressley for his second.

Clarke said: “We can’t go from that first-half performance to the second. It was Jekyll and Hyde from us.

“We were the architects of our own downfall. That’s the main frustration.

“I told my players at half-time that we don’t look like a 90-minute team – and I wanted them to show me that we were.

“But we never got control. We were always going to have to ride a bit of a storm but we didn’t have the cojones we did in the first half.

“It’s not good enough. We have to learn and we have to learn quickly.”

Sadler had words of praise for his entire group – and said goalscorer Pressley had been well-served by his team-mates as he doubled his tally for the season to four.

“Aaron was ably-assisted out there – but he works his socks off,” Sadler added.

“He’s a big man, but he’s not a normal big man, I would say, because he’s as fit as a butcher’s dog.

“He’s always doing extras, he runs further than most and he’s a hell of a finisher as well.

“We just need to keep putting him in goalscoring positions because he’s showing us all what he can do.”