On Saturday afternoon Walsall Football Club travelled to Glanford Park to take on Scunthorpe United, regular contributor Berian Lowe was in attendance, and shares his views below.Another disappointing afternoon for the Saddlers as they travelled north to face Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park.
Prior to the game, fans were calling for a change of formation after a poor start to the season. They got their wish, but it was evident to see that that the change of formation didn’t solve our problems.
There were three changes to the starting lineup which saw new signing Mathieu Manset replace Romaine Sawyers, who was away on international duty with St. Kitts & Nevis, James Chambers who came in for Dean Holden and James O’Connor Liam Kinsella.
The game wasn’t even 10 minutes old before Chambers limped off as Dean Holden came off the bench.
In a first half of very few chances, The Saddlers came close to taking the lead. Anthony Forde swung a free kick into the danger area and found Tom Bradshaw who’s header narrowly missed the target. But the best chance of the half came from Scunthorpe with Richard O’Donnell managing to pull off a fantastic save from the impressive Adelukan.
Just before half-time Ashley Grimes looked to have picked up a calf injury as he was replaced by James Baxendale.
H/T: Scunthorpe United 0 Walsall 0
Just five minutes after the restart saw the Saddler’s fall behind. Adelukan cut inside from the right, and after a few weak attempts from the Walsall defence to dispossess him, he fired the ball past O’Donnell for an neat finish via the post.
The Saddler’s barely had time to come to terms with the goal before, yet again this season, giving the opposition a free kick in a dangerous area. It was Gary McSheffrey who stood over the ball and hit a stunning free kick home.
The game seemed out of the reach for Walsall, but we were given a lifeline on the 70 minute mark, when a mix up in the home sides defence led to Tom Bradshaw grabbing his third goal this season. A long ball was allowed to bounce by the Scunthorpe defence and left their keeper exposed as Bradshaw popped up to head the ball home.
Walsall then seemed to take the initiative and looked the more threatening of the two sides in the latter stages of the game. Walsall saw shots blocked from Baxendale and Morris, who came on as sub for Forde, as Scunthorpe held on for the win.
F/T: Scunthorpe United 2 Walsall 1
Another disappointing result as Walsall ended the month slipping to third-from-bottom.
By: Berian Lowe.
RESULT: Scunthorpe United 2 (Adelakun 51', McSheffrey 54') Walsall 1 (Bradshaw 70')
AT: Glanford Park, Scunthorpe.
ATTENDANCE: 3,098 (301 Walsall).
REFEREE: Mr. Andy Davies, Hamphire.
Walsall: O'Donnell; Taylor, O'Connor, Downing, J.Chambers (Holden 8'); A.Chambers, Clifford ; Grimes (Baxendale 41' ), Forde (Morris 77'), Bradshaw, Manset
Subs not used: MacGillivray; Kinsella, Benning; Flanagan
Scunthorpe United: Olejnik, O'Neill , Addison, Canavan, Williams, Hawkridge (Kee 68' ), McAllister, Bishop , Adelakun, McSheffrey (Sparrow 90'), Madden (Myrie-Williams 87')
Subs not used: Weaver, Dawson, Taylor, Llera
Subs not used: MacGillivray; Kinsella, Benning; Flanagan
Subs not used: Weaver, Dawson, Taylor, Llera
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