Frecklington had a busy 9^th minute as he cleared a chance from a corner before bursting forward to only be stopped having a chance on goal by Chris Westwood. The midfield again was heavily involved a few minutes later when he broke forward and played a beautiful through ball to Weir-Daley, the youngster’s shot was parried onto the post by Ince and went into the back of the net to give the Imps a 1-0 lead that their relative early dominance had deserved.

From the kick off, Walsall broke forward, and just 55 seconds after falling behind, Hector Sam trickled the ball into the net via the far post. It was a blow to the Imps as it had been the first time City had scored the first goal on the road this calender year. However, City should have had the chance to regain the lead just a few minutes later Hughes was brought down in the box by Pead, but the referee waved away the claims despite the Walsall defender not getting anywhere near the ball. Hughes wasted a good chance when he blasted a free kick over from 25ish yards.

Sam’s 25 yard effort was kept out by the fingertips of Alan Marriott, but the half had seriously slowed down. About 10 minutes later, Amoo and Stallard linked up well before another through ball saw Weir-Daley free on goal, and this time he didn’t have to rely on the goalkeeper hitting it into the net as he smashed it past Ince before the keeper even had a chance to dive. Weir-Daley broke though again within a minute but he was ajudged to be offside, and that was the final noteworthy incident of the half.

Dann replaced Dobson for Walsall. City almost immediately scored a 3^rd as Frecklington’s corner was spilt by Ince, the ball fell to Beevers but his header was cleared off the line. Mark Stallard then had a good chance deflected over Ince, however the goalkeeper recovered in time to keep the ball out of the net. Hector Sam was lucky to avoid a yellow card after diving in the area under pressure from Beevers.

Jeff Hughes was injured whilst conceding a corner on the hour mark, he was down for several minutes before returning to the fray. Butler had a weak effort blocked by Marriott’s knees before the Saddlers made a second sub, this time Kris Taylor made way for Darren Wrack. Another hefty challenge from Walsall saw Beevers injured, it was obvious that Walsall were becoming desperate and were trying to injure our best players in order to get something out of the game. Sam was replaced by Cederqvist. He almost immediately had an effort blocked by Brown.

Marriott made a double sae from Dann before Frecklington’s second attempt was held by Ince. Another hefty challenge, this time on Mark Stallard was proving how desperate Walsall had become not to lose a second game in a row for the first time this season. With only a handful of minutes left, Owain Warlow replaced Spencer Weir-Daley, the young Forest striker clapped off by several Walsall fans. Green then placed Kerr on the 90 minute mark. Nothing happened in injury time and City moved up to 2^nd, if only just for 20 hours.