Following Saturday afternoon's draw with Crawley Town, Bescot Banter columnist Jack Hansford shares his Match Report;The Saddlers embarked on the trip down south to face mid-table Crawley Town, on the back of Monday night's faultless triumph over much fancied Peterborough United in front of the Sky cameras.
On what was a chilly afternoon under the winter West Sussex clouds, the opening quarter of an hour past without any real notable incident.
The first meaningful effort for Walsall fell to striker Craig Westcarr, who latched onto the end of Romaine Sawyers' neat chip, but his angled drive came to nothing.
Frustratingly for both sets of supporters inside the 'Check-a-trade.com' stadium, the first half unfolded into a somewhat scrappy contest, with neither team able to create clear opportunities in the final third of the pitch.
Crawley, who were without a win in five league games going into the match, ended the first forty-five on top, with the Saddlers struggling to deal with the threat of Jamie Proctor down the left hand side.
H/T Crawley Town 0 Walsall 0
Walsall started the second half with renewed optimism and soon after Westcarr tried his luck again. A neat through ball from James Baxendale was smashed goal ward but the former Chesterfield man could only hit the inside of the crossbar and bounce agonisingly across the goalmouth.
After some quick fire balls into the box from the home side, Walsall enjoyed more success with the ball on the ground, something which has proved successful so far this term.
The ever lively Milan Lalkovic again continued to cause havoc down Crawley's right hand side. After a mistake from centre back Mark Connolly, the on loan Chelsea man tricked his way past, cutting back a sublime ball to Westcarr, who blazed the ball high and out of the ground. It was a real golden opportunity to take the lead.
After some more nervy moments for Crawley 'keeper Paul Jones, Westcarr again missed a great chance to make it 1-0 before Lalkovic fired over.
With Crawley making their way back into the game and Walsall now struggling to find that elusive final ball, striker Billy Clarke found his way closing in on the Walsall goal but O'Donnell got down and saved well when a shot was fired straight at him.
As the game came to a disappointing close, more wasted efforts fell wide of the mark as both teams defended in numbers.
A free header from Jamie Proctor and a shot from substitute Gary Alexander went inches wide. Craig Westcarr again had the games last real chance, when Ashley Hemmings' shot was spilled by Jones in the Crawley net.
Both sides were awarded some final free kicks which ultimately came to nothing as the substitutions for each team failed to make any impact.
F/T: Crawley Town 0 Walsall 0
ATT: 3,296
REF: Tim Robinson, West Sussex
So, three clean sheets in a row for the Saddlers then and although we could of won the game today, we could of so easily lost the game too. In my opinion, both sides didn't really do enough to warrant taking maximum points, so it was probably a fair result in truth. The most frustrating thing about us today was the chances that we wasted, which cannot be defended. Still, we go into Tuesday's game at Sheffield United in good form and still only a point outside the play-off positions in eighth place. Progression.
By: Jack Hansford