Walsall 1 Crewe Alexandra 1 - Archive

Tom Bradshaw has been given a leg up as he tries to fire Walsall towards promotion.

Striker Bradshaw, 23, scored twenty goals last term despite suffering several hamstring problems and spent his summer holiday working with the club's medical staff to address the problem.

After nodding in his eighth goal of this campaign in the fourth minute he revealed:

"We did a lot of work and I've now got insoles in the majority of my shoes because it turns out I've got a slight leg length discrepancy. It's quite common, but we were ticking all of the boxes to minimise the chances of any hamstring problems in the future. I was then given a programme to follow to strengthen them and they've held up really well."

Bradshaw admitted he should have scored the winner in the dying seconds, but said:

"Four or five of us had opportunities, but it just wasn't our day. Their keeper made some great saves, but I still think we played well as a team. It's just a shame we didn't get the three points."

Central defender Ben Nugent, 22, drilled in a low shot from the edge of the box in the eighteenth minute to earn second from bottom Crewe a draw and then joked:

"I hit it in the same way I make a tackle. It wasn't something I'd try to do on the training ground, but we'll take the point. That's four from the last two games and we're all feeling pretty positive."

Upbeat Saddlers boss Dean Smith said:

"Our movement was terrific. I'm blessed with the quality of the squad I've got and I've got good competition for places."

Crewe manager Steve Davis said:

"It's a tough league for us, but we don't just want to be survivors, we want to do better than that."