Following Tuesday evening's victory over npower League One promotion hopefuls Tranmere Rovers, columnist Lee Hale shares his Match Report;
A freezing cold night at the Banks's Stadium and the small matter of play-off placed Tranmere Rovers coming to town, with many predicting this to be somewhere near a make or break for our play-off push.
Tranmere attempted to boss the opening minutes, forcing a couple of simple stops from home 'keeper Aaron McCarey, before the Saddlers exploded and a Paterson effort was cleared off the line following a free kick.
The first half progressed much the same with both 'keepers being minorly tested, Walsall however having the better of the chances as we began to implement our passing game.
H/T:Walsall 0 Tranmere Rovers 0
Second half Tranmere attempted to burst from the blocks, some good Walsall defending preventing us from going behind.
Just five minutes into the second half, the deadline was broken, the ever impressive Febian Brandy hacked down, the resulting penalty duly converted by top scorer Will Grigg.
The home contingent barely had chance to settle down from the celebrations when some good work down Tranmere's left saw man of the match Craig Westcarr unleash an unstoppable drive from 25 yards, again sending us Saddlers into raptures.
Brandy and Westcarr found themselves booked following a needless incident, as Tranmere pressurised, attempting to force their way back in, but to no avail.
Brandy was replaced (due no doubt to his warning following an alleged dive) by Nicky Featherstone, to a well deserved standing ovation.
Tranmere tried (sometimes embarrassingly poorly) to get back into the game, but the impressive Saddlers defence held firm to see out a semi-nervous final for minutes of stoppage time.
F/T: Walsall 2 (Grigg PEN 50' Westcarr 57') Tranmere Rovers 0
ATT: 3,775
REF: G, Salisbury
Usually I would take a moment now to assess our situation and performance but i think i can sum it all up with.... It's good to be a Saddler right now.
By: Lee Hale
A freezing cold night at the Banks's Stadium and the small matter of play-off placed Tranmere Rovers coming to town, with many predicting this to be somewhere near a make or break for our play-off push.Tranmere attempted to boss the opening minutes, forcing a couple of simple stops from home 'keeper Aaron McCarey, before the Saddlers exploded and a Paterson effort was cleared off the line following a free kick.
The first half progressed much the same with both 'keepers being minorly tested, Walsall however having the better of the chances as we began to implement our passing game.
H/T:Walsall 0 Tranmere Rovers 0
Second half Tranmere attempted to burst from the blocks, some good Walsall defending preventing us from going behind.
Just five minutes into the second half, the deadline was broken, the ever impressive Febian Brandy hacked down, the resulting penalty duly converted by top scorer Will Grigg.
The home contingent barely had chance to settle down from the celebrations when some good work down Tranmere's left saw man of the match Craig Westcarr unleash an unstoppable drive from 25 yards, again sending us Saddlers into raptures.
Brandy and Westcarr found themselves booked following a needless incident, as Tranmere pressurised, attempting to force their way back in, but to no avail.
Brandy was replaced (due no doubt to his warning following an alleged dive) by Nicky Featherstone, to a well deserved standing ovation.
Tranmere tried (sometimes embarrassingly poorly) to get back into the game, but the impressive Saddlers defence held firm to see out a semi-nervous final for minutes of stoppage time.
F/T: Walsall 2 (Grigg PEN 50' Westcarr 57') Tranmere Rovers 0
ATT: 3,775
REF: G, Salisbury
Usually I would take a moment now to assess our situation and performance but i think i can sum it all up with.... It's good to be a Saddler right now.
By: Lee Hale