'We were a team possessed' - Saddlers boss Sadler

Walsall boss Mat Sadler says his table-topping Saddlers played like "a team possessed" as they turned round a half-time deficit to win at promotion rivals Notts County.

After conceding for the first time in six league games at Meadow Lane, Walsall could have been even further behind but for a miraculous, somewhat fortuitous goal-line clearance from former League of Ireland defender Evan Weir.

Notts still looked on course to climb to second and close the gap at the top to nine points, but Walsall then showed their battling spirit to turn it around after a half-time reshuffle introduced Jamille Matt.

And second-half strikes from their 21-goal front pair, 35-year-old Matt and on-loan teenage poacher Nathan Lowe, earned them their most satisfying and impressive win of an increasingly memorable season.

Third-placed Notts dropped to seventh in an incredibly congested promotion race but, at the halfway stage of the League Two season, it keeps Sadler's Saddlers 12 points clear at the top.

I'm really proud for lots of reasons - Sadler

"It isn't enough - we need more," Sadler told BBC Radio WM. "And we need to keep working together to produce more days like this. I'm really proud for lots of reasons.

"In the first half, Plan A clearly wasn't working. They started to get on top, (Notts County midfielder Daniel) Crowley was free-flowing around the pitch and we weren't happy about it. We couldn't work that out.

"And we had to thank Evan for some unbelievable last-ditch defending. I've not seen a better goal-line clearance than that. It was brilliant.

"It's a real credit to everyone for digging in when Plan A wasn't working. In the second half, we showed what we were about.

"We were a team possessed. The lads were unbelievable. What we have is a desire to be together. We enjoyed it with our supporters and we want more of it."

Walsall now have just two rest days to recover before Saturday's trip to Cheltenham - but Sadler scoffed at the idea his team will feel at all jaded.

"There's going to be some tired bodies," he said. "But... no actually! Strike that word. We'll be ready."

Walsall's success - especially over the past month - has, of course, not gone unnoticed elsewhere.

It was top v second when they went to Burslem to play then-leaders Port Vale in early December and won 1-0. And the two sides have gone in opposite directions since.

That was the second of Walsall's seven straight wins and 19-year-old top scorer Lowe is on his hottest streak of the season, with five goals in four games.

By contrast, Darren Moore's Vale cannot buy a goal, have not won in nine league matches - and have even dropped out of the top three to fifth, 14 points off top spot.

"It's a crazy league," said Johnnie Jackson, boss of fellow League Two promotion chasers AFC Wimbledon, on this week's BBC Football Daily 72+ EFL Podcast.

"That's how it's become so bunched up. But they [Walsall] have gone and won seven on the bounce. At any level that's an incredible achievement.

"And they don't look like stopping. With a strike partnership of Jamille Matt and Nathan Lowe, that's 21 goals between them now and that gives you a chance in any game of football.

"Even when they're behind, Walsall are never out of it. If you know you've got those two guys on the pitch, you can get back in the game and they grind out results.

"They've been fortunate that they've not had many injuries. Often you see a similar starting line-up and the consistent team selection is paying off."

'Lowe would be very difficult to replace'

Jackson's only concern is the same one that has increasingly clogged the thought processes of many Saddlers fans in recent weeks.

What if Championship strugglers Stoke City, with a new man at the helm in Mark Robins, should choose to recall Lowe from his season-long loan in January?

"He'd be very difficult to replace," said Jackson.

"They'd have done their homework on Lowe but I doubt anybody thought it'd work out like it has. He was an 18-year-old boy. Sometimes it doesn't always work when they're that young.

"I'm sure Mark Robins didn't know too much about him either but [Stoke sporting director] Jon Walters would have done. Stoke will have been looking at it and saying 'Do we need to get him back in our team?'"