John Yems praised his ‘walking wounded’ Crawley players after they ground out a 1-1 draw at Walsall

The Red Devils have a dozen first-team players missing through injury while top scorer Kwesi Appiah was absent through illness and Jake Hessenthaler also limped off in the first half.

Despite that, they responded instantly to going behind to Brendan Kiernan’s cool finish as Tom Nichols stabbed home his second goal of the season from George Francomb’s cross.

It was just a fifth point from their last eight League Two games.

Crawley boss Yems said: “It was a very hard-fought game and I think we deserved a point. Possibly we could have nicked it but so could they.

“Considering the run we’ve had and the injuries we’ve had – we aren’t down to the bare bones, we are in the graveyard digging a few up – it’s a compliment to the boys, they were superb.

“It was a bad goal to give away but we showed character, the lads earned a point tonight. It was good to see Tom back on the scoresheet, he’s had his problems.

“There were players out there, some of them it was their first 90 minutes and we stuck together. Now we have to make sure we put them in cotton wool and get them ready for the weekend.

“Whatever side we put out, we might not be the best footballing side but we won’t give in and we will fight to the end tooth and nail.”

Walsall are winless at home in six games in all competitions and wasted the best chance to win it as centre-half Rollin Menayese fluffed his lines from close range.

They also played a part in their own downfall with Jack Earing robbed on the edge of his box for Crawley’s equaliser.

Boss Matt Taylor said: “When we went ahead, the team have then got to make sure we get to half-time with that lead intact and we didn’t do that.

“We’ve had arguably the best chance in the second half and not taken it. I didn’t think it was a particularly good game of football and the weather most definitely had an impact.

“But we weren’t brave enough on the ball tonight. We picked a safe option too often. When we did have possession of the ball, we built too slowly.

“We’ve played better than that this season and lost but we’ve also played better than that and won – we should come away with a 1-0 win because the goal is totally avoidable so I’m extremely disappointed that we haven’t got three points.

“The performance levels have not been consistent enough this season – we’ve threatened to put together a run of performances but we haven’t done it well enough.”