00:00Walsall fans, Lewis Cox here. I'm with Sadler's correspondent George Bennett and we've had a busy day down at Essenton, haven't we? At the Walsall training ground. We've been at Walsall's media day ahead of the League Two playoff final on Monday at Wembley, as we know. Good day, wasn't it, George? A lot of interest there, which is always great on occasions like this. A lot to say for Matt Sadler. It was really interesting to pick his brains just on the build-up to the big day, how he and how the players are feeling.
00:27We both interviewed players as well, didn't we? So, a really good one.
00:31Yeah, well, normally you can kind of stretch out on the couch inside his office, but that wasn't the case today.
00:36Yeah, he needed a bigger office today.
00:37Very, very cosy.
00:39He was.
00:40But no, he was saying all the right things. I feel like he's rediscovered that confidence since that crew game, really.
00:48I think he was starting to feel the pressure and it was a real difficult second after the season.
00:53But he talked a lot about pride and, you know, the occasion which is ahead for Walsall and in terms of where it ranks for his career.
01:02And he said the other night that it was right at the very top.
01:06And yeah, it was a very positive press conference, which maybe can't be said for a lot of those during the second half of the season.
01:15So, it was a refreshing one today.
01:16But yeah, I mean, we don't need to go over old ground, but the story of the season has been an unbelievable one and you've written many words about it.
01:23But the way they've come good, I suppose, at the 11th hour, right at the death, when they had to, look, we know how the final seconds of the regular season went.
01:34But, I mean, for me, looking on from a bit further afield over the playoff games, I thought that showed real character, drive, desire and mettle to get those two results, really.
01:45And, look, obviously, AFC Wimbledon got good results themselves, but surely, and I interviewed Ryan Sturk today, you know, Walsall fans will be able to read that in the coming days.
01:55He went along with it. Players will take real confidence, I think, from the way they handled the semi.
01:59Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, I was kind of in the pessimistic camp of, if Walsall don't achieve automatic promotion, I really struggled to see how they could come back from that psychological blow.
02:14I think most of them. Yeah, yeah.
02:16And they passed the test with flying colours. The way in which they recovered, I mean, you know, I didn't necessarily see personally, but I think I even saw fans say that players were in tears.
02:27There were fans in their seats, you know, half an hour after, just still in absolute disbelief.
02:33So, you know, eight days later, to come back from that and put in such a professional performance in that 2-0 win against Chesterfield,
02:42and then to back it up in such dramatic fashion in what was, you know, a bumper crowd, a really big occasion.
02:49And I've, you know, been critical of how Walsall have dealt with pressure games in the past.
02:53We've seen it, you know, in his first season with Matt Sadler.
02:56We also saw it in the second half of the campaign during that capitulation.
03:01But that was two huge pressure games that they overcame there, and I think that should leave them in good stead now going into the final.
03:09Now, we both spoke with Matt Sadler today.
03:12You caught up with experienced frontman Jamil Matt, didn't you?
03:14Just give the viewers an insight into, perhaps, we're on, what day are we on?
03:21We're on Thursday, aren't we?
03:22Yeah, we're losing track.
03:23Yeah, Thursday, we have the big one to come on Monday.
03:25Just give those watching a flavour of the week so far that Walsall have had, you know, coming off the back of last Friday night.
03:32And maybe things Matt Sadler has to mull over on Monday.
03:36Yeah, well, I mean, we sort of asked him about have they been to Wembley already or were they going to go over the weekend?
03:42And with the fact that, you know, there's other playoff games fixed in for the weekend, he kind of gave away the fact that the players had been already.
03:50So they've kind of been able to get that taste for it and visualise what it was going to be like.
03:55I think that's pretty smart, really.
03:57I think that's the thing you want to do.
03:58Definitely.
03:59And then they travelled down on Sunday and he said, you know, like any normal away game, doesn't want to sort of make too much of a big thing for it.
04:08Wanted to get the build up and all the fuss and attention from us guys and the media out of the way nice and early, which they did today.
04:14And it was quite an interesting sort of atmosphere, wasn't it?
04:18You kind of had cameras all around.
04:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:20You know, for...
04:21Not your average lead to presser.
04:22Exactly.
04:22For someone like me that's been going to the presses week in, week out, it was, yeah, you know,
04:27you could feel the fact that this feels like a big occasion.
04:32And it was great to see, you know, these are the occasions that Walsall fans will remember.
04:36So it's brilliant to see, you know, this sort of attention around the club.
04:41The challenge, and I spoke to Ryan Sturck about this, and Matt's had the touch on it as well, didn't he?
04:47The challenge is, like, everybody involved knows, obviously, the cliche is treat it like any other game.
04:52It's just a normal game, except everybody knows it isn't.
04:54And 10 months of work just rides on 90 minutes, 120 minutes.
04:58So it's that mixture, isn't there, of how to allow players, people to be excited by it,
05:06but not, you know, let it overbear them or get too carried away, like you say, or, you know, lose focus.
05:15There's a right balance to strike.
05:16And the training ground, Essenton, felt a good place today, didn't it?
05:20I remarked to you afterwards about, we had a mix of, speaking with a few of the older heads and a few of the young lads,
05:26and, you know, obviously, I don't go down there every week, but you had a real good feeling about the place, I thought.
05:32Yeah, I feel like there's a great blend in terms of characters and different experiences.
05:37You know, you kind of have your Albert Odoma's and your Jumiel Matz, obviously Albert Odoma,
05:43his enthusiasm at the age of 37 is so infectious.
05:48I mean, there'll be a line coming out on that, but when the fans ran on the pitch on Friday,
05:55Sads was like, just kick the ball and let him blow for full time.
05:58And he said he wants his 100th goal.
06:00Sads, you know, sort of jokingly and half-jokingly, half-seriously, said hopefully that arrives at Wembley.
