Blazing Saddler is hungry for success

WALSALL DEFENDER EMMANUEL ADEGBOYEGA.

SUCCESS on a plate for Emmanuel Adegboyega was once presenting the main course with artistic merit in the restaurant where he was chef's assistant.

Now he's dish of the day at Walsall, where the 6ft-3in onloan defender's form has helped to catapult the Saddlers into the League Two promotion race.

Adegboyega, 20, is the EFL Young Player of the Month for February after scoring three goals in a five-match winning streak for Mat Sadler's resurgent side.

The Bescot Stadium, so close to the M6 carriageway it's almost on the hard shoulder, would be easy to miss at 70mph - except traffic rarely accelerates beyond a crawl on one of Britain's busiest traffic arteries.

But Adegboyega, raised in Ireland but purring in the Saddlers' central-defence on loan from Norwich, is yet more proof that English football's strength is its professional bedrock.

While Premier League clubs haggle over a fair solidarity payment to the EFL - a disgraceful showcase for blinkered avarice - a salient truth remains.