Taundry glad to be back in the thick of it

'FORGOTTEN man' Richard Taundry admits he has been bursting to make an impact as the Saddlers this week began their 'Frantic February'.

Taundry (pictured left) returned to the midfield with his trademark bite and energy in Tuesday night's 1-1 home draw with Charlton Athletic.

That game kicked off a busy month for the Saddlers, who will play seven more times before the shortest calendar month is over.

Firstly they face a double header against Bristol Rovers – home on Saturday, away on Tuesday night – aiming to build on the points taken against the Addicks and from last weekend's 0-0 draw at Gillingham.

Taundry, who has only just returned from a hamstring problem, said: "I wouldn't say I have timed it well – I would have loved to have been back a long time ago. But it's great to be back when there's such a good run of games.

"I'm dying to play so having these Saturday, Tuesday games is brilliant.

"We've been looking at the DVDs of our last few games and we've been happy how we've come back after the long spell of not playing due to the weather.

"We've looked at the videos and thought that we've given a good account of ourselves so hopefully we can keep that going."

Apart from a brief return to action in October, utility man Taundry has been missing since mid-September but showed no ill-effects in his first full 90 minutes for almost five months on Tuesday.

He added: "Hopefully everything with my hamstring is sorted so I can push on and keep my place in the starting line-up.

"Against Charlton was the longest I've played since against Wycombe (in late October) – I've only played two lots of 90 minutes for the reserves because of the weather so it was great to be back out there."

The Saddlers will be missing Troy Deeney after the striker's red card against Charlton in midweek (see page 87 for more).

Deeney was booked for arguing with referee Andy Baines about a penalty given against Jamie Vincent and received a second yellow card for a trip with 15 minutes left.

Saddlers boss Chris Hutchings is unlikely to appeal against the dismissal but was unhappy with the penalty that saw his side clawed back by the Addicks, describing it as 'a very, very dubious decision'.

Hutchings (pictured left) added: "It looked soft to me the first time I saw it and normally your instincts aren't wrong. Jamie said he got the ball and the boy has fallen over.

"We've played two of the top sides in Norwich and Charlton in the last week and, for our efforts, we've only got a point which is disappointing because we have played very well in both of those games."

Walsall hope that Manny Smith (thigh), Rhys Weston (hamstring) and Peter Till (ankle) will return against Rovers, who go into the double headers on the back of a 3-2 loss to Wycombe and a 5-0 midweek mauling at Leyton Orient.