Walsall boss Mat Sadler was full of praise for his side after they sealed an important three points with a 2-0 win at Morecambe.
Second-half goals from Taylor Allen and Jamie Jellis punished Morecambe, who were reduced to 10 men after Rhys Williams was sent off five minutes after the break.
Sadler said: “It was a professional performance from start to finish and barring a five-minute spell at the end of the first half I thought we controlled the game.
“It’s a terrible pitch and really difficult to play on for both teams to get any football into the game but we handled it well.
“It was pivotal that we scored straight away after the sending off and that was a double whammy for them.
“They came back at us but the determination we showed to throw our bodies on the line and give everything to the cause to keep a clean sheet was evident for everyone to see and I’m particularly pleased with the clean sheet because we had to dig deep for that.”
Morecambe manager Derek Adams, whose side stayed in the bottom two, questioned the sending off but also said the inability to take their chances again proved costly.
The hosts created one golden opportunity to level when Marcus Dackers headed a pinpoint Adam Lewis cross over from six yards.
Adams said: “We had the better opportunities than Walsall and should have been ahead but we missed a lot of chances and the game then turned on the sending off.
“Rhys Williams got on the wrong side of his man and it was a foul but it was 20 to 25 yards from goal and Max Taylor was in close proximity so I am not sure it was an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
“To make matters worse they got a goal straight away from the free-kick when it looked like our wall ducked and we were chasing the game after that.
“We still created some good opportunities to get back into it but didn’t take them and that is frustrating because the strikers have to score and start taking the chances we are creating.”
The frustrations boiled over at the final whistle as Sadler refused to shake Adams’ hand after some harsh words were exchanged between the two sets of backroom staff.
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