Walsall boss Mat Sadler hailed his unique dead-ball weapon Taylor Allen after the defender’s late free-kick rescued the League Two leaders a 1-1 draw with promotion rivals AFC Wimbledon.
The left-sided centre-back and set-piece specialist curled home his eighth league goal of the season on 87 minutes – to go with seven assists – to keep Walsall top of the table by a point.
It was the Saddlers’ fifth draw in a winless run of seven games and they are clinging on to top spot by a thread but Sadler was happy to have a game-changer like Allen in his ranks.
“He’s brilliant, he’s so good,” Sadler said. “That dead ball is special, he’s got a fantastic left foot.
“He knows it’s a big moment and for those moments you want a player like that with personality and character, and that’s what he has running through him.
“We want athletes at the club and we want more people like Taylor Allen, that have got a desire to improve and better themselves. He’s somebody I’ll always trust to go to war with.”
Allen’s strike cancelled out a fine 18-yard finish from Dons substitute Omar Bugiel as the second half opened up following a cagey first period.
“It was the least we deserved,” said Sadler, after a game witnessed by Walsall’s largest league crowd in 11 years of 9,203.
“I thought we came out really strongly in the second half and their goal came against the run of play a little bit.
“But then the subs made a real impact on the game and it’s another point on the total. Not the three we wanted but another point in the right direction.
“And these points are so important at this stage of the season.”
Wimbledon, meanwhile, slipped to fifth after the late leveller but are still just two points off the automatic spots.
“My message to the boys is if we perform like that seven more times, I think we go very, very close,” said Dons boss Johnnie Jackson.
“We know where we’re at and we have an unbelievable opportunity to finish the season strongly.
“There’s no gimmes in this league, no easy games, we’ve seen that with the results and we will continue to see that in the last seven games.
“There will still be teams that drop points, it’s the nature of this league, it’s so fiercely competed.
“We soaked up a lot of pressure in our penalty box today even though our goalkeeper hasn’t had a lot to do but they peppered our box with crosses and we stood up to it.
“And then it’s a bit of quality from their lad, Allen, who’s done that many a time this season – you have to accept that.”
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