Great work from all Saddlers fans who showed up at the Bescot tonight, as Walsall lost the first leg of their Worthington Cup second round clash with West Ham 1-0 amid torrential rain.

Harry Redknapp, the West Ham manager, said after the game that Walsall “were a First Division side”, and possessed “a lot of quality down the left hand side”.

The thousands watching nationwide on Sky TV witnessed a match devoid of much goalmouth action. Both sides had had only 1 shot on target until the 84th minute when Rio Ferdinand’s shot following a corner smashed against the underside of the bar, the ball rocketed around the penalty area, before falling to debutant Jerome Defoe who scored with an assured turn and shot.

If ever the Saddlers were going to have a shot at beating the Hammers, it was tonight. Such is the injury crisis at Upton Park Winterburn was in midfield, and Cole and Sinclair were playing up front. But as the commentators rightly said, Walsall didn’t get the ball out wide often enough to test the pace of Pearce and Winterburn. Byfield looked lively in patches, but Hall and Matias just weren’t involved enough.

Arguably Walsall’s best opportunity came went Pedro performed magic on the touchline to dance past 3 Hammers defenders, before delivering a great cross which just evaded the on-rushing Byfield and Leitao.

So it’s onto Upton Park next Wednesday for the second leg of a clash we’re not out of, but the home side will have a stronger side out for sure.

And for Sir Ray – it is four games without a win, and just one goal for in those 360 minutes. Have we started to sacrifice the attacking flair of the opening games to try and tighten up at the back?

If anyone knows who that streaker was as well – let us know on the message board.