It’s a big relief – Neil McDonald welcomes end of Walsall’s losing streak

Walsall caretaker boss Neil McDonald admitted the Saddlers were relieved to “stop the rot” after a 1-0 victory over Tranmere halted a run of seven successive League Two defeats.

That run had cost rookie head coach Matt Taylor his job in midweek but Conor Wilkinson’s late penalty settled a drab affair to earn Walsall a first win in two months.

Victory also gives them some breathing space in the League Two relegation battle as they climbed to 18th, six points clear of the bottom two.

McDonald, who refused to be drawn on whether he would be interested in the vacant job, said: “The main objective was to stop the rot and we’ve done that. They’ve got that winning feeling again.

“It’s just a big relief – the last seven games we haven’t been out-fought or outplayed. We’ve made a couple of mistakes and not scored enough goals.

“The players have been getting a little bit of stick off everybody and obviously they are very sad about what’s happened this week.

“They had to stand up and be counted and they certainly did that today – they improved themselves individually as well as collectively and they stuck together.

“We’ve moved up the table a little bit and that just takes the stress away a bit I suppose but we’ve still got lots to do and lots to improve on – but it’s a start.

“We tried to pick the lads up – they’ve been down, they feel responsible. But it was a good response, I’m pleased the players stuck together and got their rewards for the first time in a long time.”

Tranmere, meanwhile, were below-par, with Kane Hemmings wasting their best chance by blazing over in the first half.

They remain second but 11 points adrift of leaders Forest Green as boss Micky Mellon rued Peter Clarke’s ill-judged challenge on Wilkinson for the decisive penalty.

“It was a scrappy game and to end up losing to a penalty the way we did is obviously really disappointing,” said Mellon.

“I don’t really think both teams did enough to win the game. I don’t think we really passed it well enough or started the game well enough. We were a wee bit off it.

“I said to the referee at half-time that he was going to wear his whistle out. The game, at no time, was allowed to flow – every bit of contact he wanted to give a foul.

“But I’m not making excuses for us, we didn’t win enough battles across the pitch to get a result.

“It was decided by a poor penalty from our point of view. Peter has been brilliant for us, so it’s hard to criticise but if we are speaking about the moment in isolation, it’s a crazy moment.”