By 4two
May 2 2003

Danny Hay made his full Saddlers debut as Walsall secured an important point at Bramall lane; the place where they last season secured their first division status. Walsall Line up: Walker; Bazeley, Roper, Hay, Aranalde ; Wright, Sonner, Corica Wrack; Leitao , Birch. Unused subs: Ward, Bishop, Herilvelto, Martinez, Barras

Although the Blades dominated the early encounters in this game it was Walsall’s Stevie Corica who took advantage of a mix up In the blades defence which involved fellow Ozzie Shaun Murphy (Ex Albion), which left him one on one with the keeper who he dispatched his shot comfortably past to send the saddlers in the lead after 22 minutes.

Just before half time McGovern pulled United Level as they got the goal they had been pushing for all half.


HALF TIME Saddlers 1-1 Blades

The younger players in this game, for both sides were impressive, Brown in the United midfield was dominated the game, while Mark Wright carried on where he left of on Wednesday night as he attacked the full back and had one powerful drive blocked by Shaun Murphy.

In the final stages of this entertaining game, both sides went close to taking all three points. Jorge could have bagged a couple for Walsall while United subs Peter Ndlovu and Ten Heuvel's went desperately close to snatching all the points.

We can take a lot of things from this game and hopefully build on them through the season. In the previous two games there had been a distinct lack of chances, but today chances were created and now all we need to do is convert them in to points. Wright and Birch again impressed with decent performances, although weather they are suited to playing in a side that will be battling to keep its place in the second tier of English football remains to be seen.

Danny Hay has picked up an injury, and at the moment we can only hope that this injury isn’t serious, and isn’t connected to the injury that has kept the defender out of action for the last few seasons. From watching Hay it seems obvious to all that at the moment he isn’t fully fit, or as sharp as he could be. I believe that he could grow to be a great centre half the saddlers and forge a dominant partnership with Matt Carbon.

The return of Danny Sonner was also a notable point today as he added some much needed substance to our midfield and hopefully when the other injured players return we will have a side that will regularly return from away games with points in the bag.