The Saddlers fell behind when Argyle defender Ryan Edwards, who recently returned to fitness after beating testicular cancer, slotted home five minutes before half-time, but were able to recover and grabbed goals from summer signing Andy Cook (45+1'), and left-back Luke Leahy (64') to take the win, beginning the season in style.
Dean insisted that, despite going a goal behind, his side deserved the win, he said; "We went 1-0 down and I thought we had been worthy of going in front. We broke in the first half at great pace and created opportunities but we didn’t take them. That’s football and we got caught out. We took the body-blow, recovered from it, got ourselves going again and rightly got ourselves back into the game.
"I can’t be any more proud of the lads than I am now. But we will look back at some of the little mistakes that have been happening and do our best to make sure they don’t happen again. I feel we deserved the win. First half we missed a bit of a cutting edge but second half I thought we broke well a few times"
Keates then admitted he was delighted to send the Saddlers faithful home with an opening day win, he continued; "It was a home game, we wanted to send the fans home happy at 5pm and I think we’ve done that. It was a collective, a team effort. To a man I thought we were outstanding but it’s just the first game of the season and we are happy with the three points. Now we have to get ready for next week."