Town manager Joe Royle hailed Pablo Counago's performance against Walsall as "outstanding" after his two goals helped see off Colin Lee's men.

Royle says that the Spaniard's form has come on a great deal over recent weeks: "Pablo was outstanding. He has improved tremendously over the past month and was a joy to watch.

"His all-round play and work for the team is impressive. When he gets the ball on the edge of the box the opposition have problems."

Royle also had praise for Thomas Gaardsøe who netted his third goal in three games: "Thomas has been doing extra work with his defensive headers with coach Tony Mowbray. I challenged him to score with his head and how well he has responded."

Again Town were guilty of letting a side back into a game which looked to be dead and buried. Royle felt that Walsall's first goal should not have counted but wasn't happy with his defence: "We were 2-0 up and cruising. Their first goal was offside but we didn't deal with the cross when it came in.

"We should have been keeping the ball and working towards the third goal, but I'd have been happy to accept 3-2 before the start.

"We still have a lot to do to reach the play-offs. Most clubs say their fate depends on away form. In our case it's our home form that will decide our destiny."

Royle's biggest fitness worry ahead of the New Year's Day match against Millwall is Tommy Miller who limped off with a knee injury after 52 minutes.

Colin Lee pointed to individual errors as being behind his team's defeat: "We can't concede goals like that and expect to win football matches. It's individual frailty really, teams are not carving us up.

"We planned to keep it tight to half-time because if we'd played 4-4-2 we could have come unstuck. Then we planned to unleash Junior and players like that.

"I had a meeting with the players after the match to say that collectively we have got to be better. The way we have been conceding goals has been too soft."

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