Walsall manager Jon Whitney has spoken to club journalists ahead of Saturday's season-opening clash with Bury, and has called upon his team to push on from last season's fourteenth-placed finish and become a test for all of the teams they will come up against over the course of the season.
46-year-old Whitney, who was speaking via Saddlers.co.uk, said; "We expect to compete in every game. We want to push on from where we finished last year and I’m sure we can with this group. We can really be competitive this year and make sure we give everyone a game.
"Everyone has got to fight to get something from us and that’s what we’ve drilled into the players. We have to be ruthless, quite resilient and have a bit of quality as well."
While opponents Bury, who have signed sixteen players over the summer, go into the game as favourites, Whitney has insisted that the Saddlers will go into the game in the right shape of mind, ready for the task in hand, he continued; "You’ve got to concentrate on yourself and make sure your shop’s in order the first few games. I went up to Salford to watch a few of their players play and I understand the players they’ve brought in.
"You look at the way Lee does things over his time previously, he played a three towards the end at Bury, a four at Kilmarnock. He’s played different formations but what you do is concentrate on the players he’s brought in.
"We can watch them so we know about their players. We’ll be concentrating on what we do and see if they can handle us. We’ll respect them and have an idea individually of what their players can do and what their strengths and weaknesses are."