Walsall decided to leave their best performance of the season until the last but one home game, but certainly decided to make the most of it.

Make no mistake, this was not a lucky win, or a hard fought one, but a comprehensive defeat of a disappointing Hull City side who were never at the races. In a mirror image of the game at the KC stadium, the Tigers lined up in a narrow formation, trying to exploit the talents of Nick Barmby “in the hole”, only to be torn apart by the home side’s extra width and pace down the flanks.

Julian Joachim took most of the plaudits for an extremely well taken hat-trick, which also owed much to some terrible Hull defending, but, if Standing, Wright and, especially, Surman had had their shooting boots with them, this could easily have been doubled.

It’s difficult to pick out the highlights, as there was so many, in a performance which saw the Saddlers, for the first time this season, concentrate on keeping the ball and which resulted them in completely dominating possession. Certainly there is no doubt that Hull’s Man of the Match had to be their keeper, Boaz Myhill, who kept the score down to a respectable level almost on his own.

Walsall’s Man of the Match had to go to Julian Joachim for a performance which had the crowd chanting “Bonser Sign Him Up”, but the outstanding Osborn, who held the midfield together defensively, and Standing weren’t far behind. Both wingers exploited the space they had been given to the full, although Wright did waste a couple of reasonable chances. The defenders and the goalkeeper had little to do and what they had was competantly dealt with.

The only question remaining at the end was where have these performances been all season?