CLAYTON Ince today spoke of his determination to shut out free-scoring Rochdale when they visit Bescot Stadium later today.
Dale have scored 14 times in their last five fixtures, including back-to-back 4-0 victories over Boston United and Grimsby Town, plus last weekend's 5-0 drubbing of MK Dons.
However Ince, who has helped The Saddlers record 15 clean-sheets in League Two already this season, explained that he will be doing all he can to make it 'Rochdale Nil' later today. "It will be interesting," explained the Trinidad & Tobago International. "Rochdale have been scoring goals of late and to beat MK Dons 5-0 is no mean feat.
"But we've proved throughout the season that we're a tough team to score against and, like a striker wants to be scoring goals, I want to be keeping clean-sheets.
"We don't like conceding goals and we'll be looking to shut Rochdale out."
Ince also explained that, at this stage of the season, it is all about grinding out results and that the team can take plenty of heart out of Tuesday's battling display at Macclesfield. "At this stage of the season every team has something to play for," added the 34 year-old. "Teams need points for different reasons and it's not going to be pretty football every week.
"We showed earlier in the season that we are capable of knocking the ball around and then on Tuesday at Macclesfield we showed that we can dig in and grind out a result.
"That will stand us in good stead between now and May and I'm expecting a similar sort of game against Rochdale as we saw on Tuesday.
"It will be tough but if we work hard, defend as a unit and attack with pace, then I'm sure we can get the right result."
Meanwhile Ince is involved in a three-way battle to claim The Football League's inaugural Puma Golden Glove award for League Two.
The award will be given to the goalkeeper who has kept the most clean sheets in Football League, Carling Cup, Johnstone's Paint Trophy and FA Cup matches throughout the season.
Ince, who has 17 clean sheets to his name, currently sits behind Hartlepool United's Dimitrios Konstantopoulos and Steve Phillips of Bristol Rovers who each have 18. "This is an opportunity to reward those that make the most impact this season," said Football League Chairman, Lord Mawhinney. "The award is going to be keenly contested in League Two."