The Saddlers will have left this game knowing they deserved more than a 3-2 defeat. A spirited performance blotted by a couple of defensive mistakes has cost the Saddlers their 6th game without defeat.

The game saw Paul Mcshane make his debut, while Paul Merson put in a relatively influential midfield performance.

Merse will have been pleased with our start, as we managed to keep it all square up and till the half our mark when Jones connected well with the ball, and volleyed the Owls in to the lead. Our equaliser came via Marvin Robinson. The bustling front man got his 4th goal in his third Walsall appearance, connecting well with an Aranalde cross.

The owls edged in front 20 minutes in to the second half. Some comedy defending from Wright and Mcshane led to the ball finding it’s way in to the back of the Walsall net. The own goal was given to a certain Mr Mark Wright.

Wendy went on to make it 3-1, as Steven MacLean won, then converted a penalty. Neil Emblen was adjudged to have given away the spot kick. We did claw it back to 3-2, as we benefited from another Paul Merson through ball that allowed Paul Mcshane to grab a debut goal. We pushed on in the last 10 minutes, but were unable to bring a point back to the Bescot Stadium.

Interesting things to note were that Merse played a full 90 minutes, while Herivelto stayed on the bench. Mark Kinsella also played 75 minutes. Can we read anything in to this for the Tranmere game. Will the ageing - but influential legs of Merson and Kinsella last the X-mas period.