Plenty of goals (again). No Win (again)

Stoke City

Unfortunately the Saddlers were denied a point by an outrageous decision by the assistant referee. With 5 minutes of the game remaining Wales won a header in the six yard box and nodded it towards goal. Leitao then advanced and poked the ball home from 1 yard out. The ref gave the goal and the Saddlers supporters celebrated a dramatic equaliser. However, the assistant called the ref over and after consultation the goal was ruled out for some imaginary infringement. Outrageous.

Colin Lee sent the Saddlers out with Merson operating behind the two strikers whilst young Kris Taylor was given an opportunity to shine in a midfield 3. Carbon partnered Ritchie at the back. In all honesty Walsall largely dominated the first half with the excellent Taylor running at the Stoke defence and the influential Samways controlling the middle of the park. Unfortunately Walsall went behind on 8 minutes thanks to the unimpressive showing of Petterson.

Having conceded six goals in his first full outing the errant “stopper” (I cannot use the word goalkeeper for fear of attracting attention from Trading Standards) continued where he left off after the Coventry fiasco. On 3 minutes his first contribution was to hopelessly miscue a simple back bass gifting possession to the Stoke forwards. Fortunately they spurned this gift. On 7 minutes his second contribution was to hopelessly slice another back pass into touch gifting a throw in to the Potters on the edge of the box. From this throw in Russell had a shot from an unthinkable distance and Pettersons third contribution was to palm the ball into his own net.

After having gone behind Walsall battled back and continued to threaten a dodgy looking Stoke defence. On the quarter hour Merson supplied a fantastic cross to Leitao who nodded into the net to bring the Saddlers back on level terms. At this stage there looked to be only one winner in an open end to end game. Saddlers confidence was flying high until yet another gaffe by the errant stopper almost gave Stoke the lead. As a ball was played forward the stopper ran to collect on the edge of the 18 yard box, fumbled and gave the ball to an advancing Potter with the goal at his mercy. Somehow Aranalde was alert enough to clear the resultant effort off the goal line.

The breakthrough finally came on 37 minutes against the run of play. A seemingly stoppable shot was fumbled by the stopper into the path of Asaba who easily netted from 6 yards out. Any confidence that the Saddlers had gained looked like rapidly vanishing with Pettersons performance. The deathly glare that Ritchie hurled in the direction of Petterson said it all.

However, once again Walsall battled back with Kris Taylor bringing the scores level on the stroke of half time. A fantastic run down the left flank followed by a cut inside and a blistering shot into the bottom corner meant the Saddlers were deservedly level.

Stoke started the second half with all guns blazing. Having witnessed our keeper’s ability to fumble everything thrown his way they adopted a shoot on sight policy. Within 5 minutes a shot from the edge of the area looked like it would be 3-2 to the Potters but somehow Petterson stretched fully to turn it behind for a corner (an accident surely). Another shot at the stranded stopper fortunately ended up in the Boothen End before Petterson pulled off a good save to turn another effort over. Stoke at this stage looked pretty rampant with their skill and pace up front turning the Saddlers rearguard inside out.

They weren’t having it all their own way though as Merson cut inside and curled a beauty against the foot of the post. For the neutral observer it was an exciting end to end game. Stoke finally took the lead however with the hour mark approaching. A cross come shot was delivered into the area and Asaba managed to redirect it past the stranded bag of sand in the Walsall goal.

Walsall continued to battle and Wales was brought on to replace the tiring Taylor. With 10 minutes remaining Saddlers created and spurned their chances with goal mouth scrambles all going in the Potters favour. With minutes remaining though, debutant Wales nodded the ball into the path of Leitao who equalised from a yard out. The linesman then outrageously over ruled the referee and the goal was cancelled out much to the disgust of the Walsall players and supporters. Still the Saddlers battled but the goal just would not come.

Overall, a decent performance but Stoke probably just shaded it with their pace and skill up front.