Walsall had the luxury rarely seen in recent seasons of going into the last game of the season with nothing at stake for either themselves, or their already relegated opponents. As it turned out, too many of the players were already packed for their summer holidays.

With Andrew Surman returning to Southampton at the end of his loan spell, Paul Merson made the surprise decision to start with youth team midfielder Mark Bradley in his place. It was even more of a shock, however, that Jon Harkness also made his debut, in place of David Perpetuini.

The Saddlers started the game reasonably brightly, with Simon Osborn beating a couple of defenders on the edge of the box, but shooting too close to the keeper, and a powerful run from Standing came to nothing, but, as is too often the case in these kinds of games, soon seemed to sink to the level of what is, after all, the worst team in the Division. Enter Darren Wrack.

Julian Joachim latched onto a long ball, beat the defender for pace and was brought down in the box. Up stepped Darren Wrack to hit possibly the worst penalty I’ve ever seen well wide. Not that long afterwards, he failed to even head on target a supremely inviting cross from the impressive Harkness. The half meandered on, with Bradley looking a little out of his depth, which is excusable on his debut. The last meaningful action was Roper, who had obviously strained a hamstring when making a clearance with a diving header, being replaced by Kris Taylor. Taylor went to left back and Harkness to centre back.

The second half got under way and Osborn and Joachim went close, before Darren Wrack took a hand again. He cut inside two defenders superbly, opened up the shhoting angle and promptly gave the keeper every chance to save it, which he promptly did. Just after the hour, Bradley was replaced by Fryatt and he immediately set up Wrack for a curling effort which hit the bar, but he really should have hit the target.

Gerrard then picked up a yellow for a reckless challenge and Joachim went close before Wrack was set up again, only to be thwarted by the keeper when he should have done better.

With less than five minutes to go, Fryatt decided to show the midfielder how it was done, beating three men in no space at all on the edge of the box, before slotting past the keeper.

Almost immediately, Standing did the same just outside the box and was duly brought down. Kris Taylor flighted a superb free kick over the wall and it hit the underside of the bar before bouncing down. The linesman gave the goal immediately.

Stockport, despite being buoyed by their superb support for so long, were completely demoralised by conceding two in two minutes and, when Walsall broke again, Joachim rounded Keeper Cutler, before rolling the ball across for Mark Wright to lash home.

It was a good win from a poor game and the scoreline flattered the Saddlers, but the opposite has been the case too often in recent seasons to worry about that. Gerrard was given the Man of the Match, but Pead and Harkness both had good games too. Joachim was always a handful, but the midfield failed to function properly, apart from Osborn. Standing was brilliant at times and anonymous at others, Wright couldn’t get the beating of his full back and Bradley was a little overwhelmed, although that’s nothing to be ashamed of in your first game. Darren Wrack had a terrible afternoon, one he (and everyone who witnessed it) would much rather forget about. The basics, however, are most certainly there now.