Wes Morgan and David Nugent had earlier given City a healthy 2-0 lead, before they were pegged back to 2-2 with goals either side of half time.
Drinkwater’s 25-year screamer rounded off a successful night though, and despite yet another win, Shakespeare was again focused on the performance ahead of the result at this stage of pre-season.
“I think with pre-season, you can sometimes read too much into it,” Shakespeare told LCFC.com. “We wanted to get through it unscathed, which we have. We wanted to make sure there’s competition for places, which we’ve got. We’re trying to have a look of everybody and give them a fair crack of the whip.
“Everybody else looks at the result, and we want that too, but we also want a performance and individual performances. You can’t read too much into results, although winning is a good habit.
“In terms of the game, again it’s a case of getting through it, and we came through with no injuries, which is good.
“We tried to get the majority of players 60 minutes and the rest 30 minutes. On Saturday (against Preston) we’ll reverse that so we’re building up to the start of the season.
“Walsall were a bit further ahead than us. They started earlier than us in pre-season and from our point of view, with having the journey back from Thailand to contend with, we’re quite pleased with how it went.
“I think there were a few little areas and unforced errors that we’ll have a look at, but in general the application was there, so we’re quite pleased.”