Mat Sadler thrilled with Walsall response to falling behind at Newport

Walsall manager Mat Sadler praised the character of his League Two leaders as they recovered from an early setback to win 4-2 at bottom club Newport.

Kai Whitmore put the hosts ahead against the run of play when he fired into the top corner in the 16th minute, but Walsall levelled within a minute through Daniel Kanu and forged ahead two minutes after that thanks to Ryan Finnigan’s strike.

Finnigan bundled in his second and Walsall’s third seven minutes before the break, but Ged Garner pulled one back in the 44th minute to give the Welsh side hope.

However, the Saddlers produced a professional second-half showing to see out the game comfortably after Rico Browne had added a fourth goal seven minutes after the interval.

“I was very happy with the reaction,” said Sadler. “I thought we were very good in the first 15 minutes and to go a goal behind – I didn’t see that coming.

“But the reaction to that was brilliant. We created a lot of chances and it was good to take four of them. It possibly could have been more, but it’s a really difficult place to come. We knew we had to be really on top of our game and I think we were.

“It didn’t look like bottom versus top. We knew we had to be right on top of our game and defend well because they throw bodies on your back line. We did that for the most part.

“The 1-0 win in the second half was very pleasing, especially after the topsy-turvy first half. We showed real composure and clear heads in the second half to do what we needed to do – to win both halves.”

While Walsall remain top ahead of Swindon on goal difference, County are still rooted to the bottom of the table and are three points from safety.

Newport manager David Hughes said: “We’re not going to win games conceding goals as we did today. Give Walsall credit, but all four goals are avoidable.

“Disappointed would be an understatement because for spells we’ve more than matched them, but it’s no good doing it for spells. We need to be capable of doing that for significantly longer than we were today.

“We’re hugely disappointed because I feel we’ve thrown away what momentum we were building.

“The positive is that right to the death we were still trying to find a way – that shows the level of resilience within the squad.

“We have to improve, we know that. We’ll take the positives and work on what we didn’t do well and start building towards the next game.”