Walsall manager Richard Money named an unchanged squad for the visit of Rochdale, following an impressive 2-0 win in their midweek game against Macclesfield Town, Walsall lined-up with Clayton Ince in goal, Chris Westwood, Anthony Gerrard, Scott Dann and Daniel Fox across the back, in midfield Darren Wrack, Craig Pead, Michael Dobson and Dean Keates who bagged himself a couple of goals in midweek with Martin Butler and Hector Sam upfront. On the bench for Walsall were goalkeeper Bertrand Bossu, Mark Wright, Kris Taylor, Par Cederqvist and Ishmel Demontagnac.

Walsall ‘keeper Clayton Ince gifted visiting Rochdale an early lead, when the Trinidad and Tobago international palmed the ball into the back of his own net. The visitors took control of the game for the opening quarter-an-hour which saw an uncertain Saddlers defence come up against a Rochdale side full of confidence.

The Saddlers had a chance to pull the game level when long serving midfielder chased a high ball, Rochdale ‘keeper Matthew Gilkes came out to clear before colliding with his own defender, but Craig Pead failed to hit the target with the following chance.  Another chance for The Saddlers to equalise was when a sweeping move saw Martin Butler knock the ball to Dean Keates, who was in space wide left but the ball was cleared off the line by Rochdale defender Rory McArdle.

A foul on Hector Sam gave Richard Money’s men a free kick out wide, Darren Wrack curled the ball onto striker Hector Sam’s head, but the Walsall striker failed to score from close range.

Ishmel Demontagnac replaced Anthony Gerrard at half-time an then a few minutes later Par Cederqvist and Mark Wright were brought on to replace Hector Sam and Darren Wrack respectively as The Saddlers started to look desperately for an equalising goal.  The subs almost worked immediately when Pead’s low ball towards Par Cederqvist, but the Swede poked the ball wide of the post.

Just past the hour mark, Glenn Murray closed on goal when he was allowed to get around Scott Dann, moments later Keates corner caused trouble for the Rochdale defence but was scrambled away as far as Scott Dann put the ball back into the box but was cleared by the Rochdale defence.

Glenn Murray broke the offside trap as the clock ticked on 69 minutes, as his ball inside was half cleared by The Saddlers defence half cleared into the path of David Perkins, who blazed is shot over.

It looked like The Saddlers were going to slip to a surprising home defeat, but there was a final sting to the tail when defender Scott Dann picked the ball up in his own half took 2 or 3 Rochdale players, as the visitors backed off The youngster he hit a 20 yard effort into the bottom corner to nick an undeserved point for The Saddlers. 

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