Mat Sadler salutes ‘absolute monster’ Priestley Farquharson after Walsall win

Walsall boss Mat Sadler labelled Priestley Farquharson “an absolute monster” after he sealed a 2-0 win at Harrogate on his first EFL start for 15 months.

The 6ft 3in defender suffered a thigh injury in August 2024 which caused him to miss the rest of last season.

But, having been restored to the starting line-up, his 87th-minute header secured maximum points following Daniel Kanu’s first-half opener.

Farquharson celebrated his goal in front of 602 visiting fans before being immediately substituted by Sadler, who continues to closely manage the ex-England beach soccer international’s comeback.

Sadler said: “I’m delighted for Priestley. He was holding on a bit at the end, which is why we substituted him, but playing 87 minutes and scoring in his first start for a long while will have done him the world of good.

“Defensively, he was a man mountain for us and he’ll be really pleased with how he handled things physically because he looked like an absolute monster in the back line.”

Sadler added praise for on-loan Charlton striker Kanu after he netted his seventh goal of the campaign.

“That goal typified our performance,” he declared. “Aden (Flint) won a brilliant header, then Jamille (Matt) looked after the ball and played Daniel in.

“He could have gone down when their player challenged him, and then the referee would have had a decision to make, but he went on to show pace and calmness to score. He’s a fantastic striker who constantly wants to run in behind defences.”

On his team’s overall display, Sadler said: “It was a Walsall performance from start to finish in terms of what I want us to be and who we are. We looked really powerful, a constant threat and all the players put in a really good shift.”

Harrogate have taken just one point from a possible 21 but manager Simon Weaver is in no mood to lambast his players, preferring to improve them with direction and encouragement on the training ground.

“We have to work with this group and keep their heads up,” he reasoned. “We won’t be beating them with a stick.

“We knew what we’d be up against with Walsall and handled their physicality until the 43rd minute. Until then we had competed well and hadn’t been bullied in the box, without really threatening in their goalmouth.

“But the first goal we conceded was disappointing and, in the second half, we didn’t show sufficient quality to break them down. After they scored, we were thinking where’s our goal coming from.

“We were playing with three forwards but didn’t quite have that attacking spark to upset them and didn’t shift the ball quickly enough. That made it easy for them to stay in shape and they closed the game off quite easily.”