Walsall 0-1 Wolves

We all held breath hoping that the work done midweek would improve the Bescot playing surface. As fans entered the stadium from 1pm onwards in became blatantly clear that the Saddlers were going to struggle to play their football on it.

Lee radically changed the line up and employed a new 3-4-3 system. Carbon, Hay and Roper were the centre halves, while Bazeley and Aranalde operated as Wing backs, with Sonner and O’Connor taking up the two central midfield births. Wrack, Junior and Zdrilic made up the forward trio, with Wrack and Zdrilic seemingly tucked in behind Junior. Lee said it was to give Wolves something to think about in their own half, while Corica’s absence was due to the conditions not suiting his style of play.

Wolves deployed Miller and Ndah as their front pairing because favoured duo Blake and Sturridge were out injured. The Wolves side was packed with international experience as they included the likes of Ince, Irwin, Cameron and Kennedy.

Wolves started the game the more comfortable of the two sides, the Saddlers were giving away a series of niggling free kicks and picked up a number of bookings included Martin O’Connor for what seemed a genuine challenge which the Wolves fans and players appeared to have no complaints about. Wolves had put the Saddlers under pressure straight away and it was Newton who registered the first shot on goal with a 20 yard shot that sailed over the bar.

The first Saddlers chance saw a Sonner header go wide, and Walsall were struggling to exert any kind of influence on the game.

Newton and Cameron had other long-range efforts before the half our mark, but none were close enough to worry Jimmy Walker. The game was beginning to become a scrappy affair dogged by petty fouls and over the zealous refereeing of Philip Dowd. The Saddlers best chance of the half also came from a long range effort, Martin O’Connor picked up the ball 25 yards out and drilled his shot just over the bar as England Under 21 keeper Matt Murray looked to have been caught by surprise.

As the half time whistle went both sides would have been disappointed with what was a dour first half. Neither keeper had really been tested and it was the Wolves who had created the majority of the chances. The Saddlers had put the Wolves under pressure, but had been unable to keep it going long enough to calve out any clear cut chances.

Half Time – Saddlers 0-0 Wolves

The second half started just as it had ended. Scrappily, with Walsall unable to sustain any periods of pressure, and Wolves unable to get behind what was effectively a Walsall back 5.

Junior was seeing a lot of the ball and he was peeling off the front line to try and bring other people in to the game, but the lack of movement from Wrack and Zdrilic often saw him bundled off the ball by the Wolves midfield. No side was able to create any clear cut chances and when Matt Carbon passed the ball back to Jimmy Walker on 64 minutes everyone expected Jimmy to do what he does so well (hence his nickname of Whakka) and punt the ball away, but the uneven playing surface saw the ball bobble and Jimmy scrambling back to his goal line to prevent an embarrassing blunder. Jimmy managed to scoop the ball offline, only for it to fall to George Ndah3 yards out to pass home in to an empty net as Jimmy lay stranded on the floor.

Jimmy Walker has got himself a reputation for being one of the most consistent kickers in the football league, so much so that he has earned the nickname of Whacker, and such a blunder in such a high profile game was a shock to the Saddlers system. Indeed Carbon should have known better with such a poor playing surface, while Lee must have certainly warned his players about the danger of such situations. Their was no time to stand round pointing the finger because the Saddlers had 25  minutes to do something they had not managed to do at Bescot for 245 minutes – score a goal.

Emblen was introduced, but failed to make any kind of impact on the game, but he will need time to settle in with the Saddlers.

Minutes later Junior forced Murray in to making a save, as he looked like the only Saddlers player who might be able to get them back in to the game. The Wolves went on to try and create more chances, they pumped cross balls and corners in to the box to no avail as Ian Roper, Matt Carbon and Danny Hay looked quiet content with Miller and Ndah.

Juniors best chance of the game came when he calved his own opening down the right flank, cut in side the Wolves penalty area, shimmied and fired a shot across the face of the goal that seemed to hit the cross bar on its way out for a throw in.

The game ended on a low key, no great rally from the Saddlers, no push for the game to put out of reach by Wolves. The 90 minutes had seen the Wolves control the majority of the possession, but they were unable to break the Saddlers down to create any clear-cut chances. The Saddlers had found it difficult to get the ball forward and keep it up their, the main problem in this case proved to be the lack of width they had in the opposition third. The new system may have had people confused about their roles but the real problem lay with the Saddlers being unable to come to terms with deteriorating playing surface.

Full Time - Walsall 0-1 Wolves