Walsall crashed to an embarrassing defeat at home to Coventry City today. Without Leitao and Walker (suspended), Ritchie (injured) and Samways (absent without leave), Stefan Oakes was given an (extremely rare) start and Kris Taylor and Mark Wright appeared on the bench. Zigor came in for Jamie Vincent, who incidentally took just fourteen minutes to open his Derby County goal scoring account.
After six minutes Joachim fired wide but somehow the referee – Lee Mason from Lancashire - managed to give City a corner and Morrell headed Warnock’s kick past debutant Andy Petterson to give Eric Black’s side the lead.
Davenport then headed against the bar before things went from bad to worse. Stefan Oakes has waited five months for a Walsall start – it lasted 37 minutes after he was sent off for a lunge at right back Whing.
Despite their shocking start, Walsall went in level at half time thanks to Darren Wrack’s 45th minute equaliser. He exchanged passes with Merson before curling past ex Saddler Gavin Ward from the edge of the box.
Walsall started the second half as they started the first and McSheffrey fired low past Petterson from twenty yards after 48 minutes. Morrell then headed his second from Joachim’s 57th minute cross before Joachim himself made it 4-1 in the 69th minute, bursting through the defence before firing past Petterson. Roper’s challenge then sent the ball trickling past Petterson for the fifth after 76 minutes and McSheffrey added a sixth with eight minutes remaining before hitting his 84 minute penalty against the post and spurning the opportunity of a hat trick.
Walsall’s worst home defeat for 15 years - reaction is literally flooding in with the message board packed with angry supporters. Confirmation also coming tonight that Samways is not returning to the club - he was in Spain today as the team he’s paid by were conceding six.