Following Friday evening's Sky Bet League One trip to London Road to face Peterborough United, Bescot Banter columnist Sam Wright shares his Match Report;This fixture had all the makings of what could have definitely been a thriller, with sixth meeting seventh in a game that promised to be vital in the competition for a playoff place. Last week, however, the fixture somewhat lost some of its glamour with the change of schedule to play the game on Friday night. This made it another tough night game for both sides, and adding in the conditions with torrential rain for much of the last week and powerful swirling winds, it’s no wonder this one didn’t turn out to be one of the more thrilling games of the season.
Walsall lined up with James Chambers coming in to play the centre half role in the absence of the captain through suspension, and Michael Ngoo made his first start, replacing Sawyers in a formation that saw Craig Westcarr drop into the role just behind the striker. From the beginning it blatantly clear that this was not going to be a night of exhibition football, both teams struggled to maintain possession in the opening stages, and even though Walsall began to control the game slightly more we struggled to create any clear cut chances.
As the first half wore on however we did seem to find our feet, and the general feeling seemed to be that we needed to gain a first half goal whilst kicking with the wind. Several half chances fell our way, one Sam Mantom shot from distance had to be save by the Posh ‘keeper, but the first real chance fell to Febien Brandy, when a ball in from the left hand side seemed to have picked him out perfectly at the far post, but he could not get his body in position to header the ball and simply bundled it out rather tamely for a goal kick.
The one other real chance to take the lead in the first half was again at the right end as far as we were concerned, again falling to Brandy, who worked his way brilliantly into the box and found himself with time to shoot, but blasted his shot straight at the goalkeeper, either side of him would probably have made it one nil. It had been a promising performance in the first half, yet failure to take the few chances we created left a worried feeling, as we knew that second half kicking against the wind against a strong Peterborough side would be tough.
H/T: Peterborough United 0 Walsall 0
The second half, as expected, did see the home side grow into the game more. Although they did seem to have one tactic of the long ball up towards Assombalonga, it was causing problems, especially for Paul Downing who seemed to be struggling to adapt to the wind taking the ball all over the place, not to mention the large mud patches making the bounce very unpredictable. Richard O’Donnell was forced into some pretty routine saves from distance, but for the major part of the start of the second half we managed to keep the Posh back, largely due to a real stand out performance from James Chambers filling in at centre half.
The pitch did seem to deteriorate further as the game went on, which really seem to affect us badly as we struggled to string passes together, and often had to resort to a long ball toward Ngoo, who in all honesty had a tough game and struggled to make an impact, which really can be said about all the attacking four for the best part of the second half. Peterborough did however finally manage to create a chance, as O’Donnell parried from a long range shot, and the rebound from Assombalonga was tamely put back into his hands as he lay on the floor. He must have expected that the striker, who has bagged 22 goals this season, was going to make it one nil to the home side.
Walsall’s one real chance of the second half came late on. Brandy again working space for himself well, and managed to find the energy to get through to goal but blazed his shot just over the bar when he maybe should have hit the target. This would have been harsh on Peterborough though who had had the better possession in the second half without really causing us too many problems.
F/T: Peterborough United 0 Walsall 0
Attendance: 4,263 (182)
Referee: Graham Horwood, Bedfordshire.
Overall probably a fair result. Both teams failed to grind out too many chance in the tough conditions, which looking at the state of the pitch and weather was understandable. The only complaint we could have is that maybe first half we should have pushed on and got that goal when we were on top and kicking with the wind. Febien Brandy put in a real shift on the right hand side on a tough night and created most of the chance we did have. The midfield struggled at times in the second half, largely down to the conditions, but James Chambers at the back did a Sterling job playing out of position and in fact basically led the back four for most of the game. A win would have been a huge result for us tonight, but as it stands we are still very much in the playoff mix with another tough game out of the way. On now to a must win game at home to Crawley on Saturday, which if conditions improve we can be very confident of winning.
By: Sam Wright