Did you hear the one about the curate’s egg? You know, good in parts?

Mick Halsall, for the first game of the post Merson era, decided to line up:

Oakes, Pead, Roper, Mills, Wright, Devlin, Osborn, Keates, Smith, Timm, Barrowman, with Gilmartin, James, Nicholls, Bradley and Demontagnac on the bench. Fox had picked up an injury and Paul Merson’s attempts at wheeler dealing in the January window left us with no cover at all at full back.

It was still a poor first half, however. With one player making his debut and two more making their home debuts, there was far too much disjointed play. Scunthorpe, like so many teams in this Division, looked fit and organised and not much else, but their extra power and fitness made them always dangerous. There were signs, however, that Walsall were not going to be the push overs they have been of late, as we were working harder, especially when we weren’t in possession.

However, enter the referee, Mr Curson. He had already made one or two strange decisions when, after 19 minutes of fruitless endeavour for both sides, Mads Timm fell over clutching his back while in possession on the half way line. It was an obvious re-occurence of the injury he was suffering from last week. The Walsall side stopped for a second or two, the referee didn’t stop play, Scunthorpe ignored the player lying on the ground, broke forward and Keogh scored from 25 yards. Stunning shot, but you thought Oakes should have got closer to it.

Walsall replaced Timm with James and immediately the shape was better, with a strightforward 4 4 2. We were still looking disjointed, however, when, 10 minutes after the opener, Dean Keates won the ball 20 yards out, took a touch and sent an absolute screamer into the roof of the Scunthorpe net.

Walsall now started to look the better side, if not by much, but couldn’t create a decent chance, although the growing wierdness of the ref’s decisions wasn’t helping. Scunthorpe, however, then decided to take the lead again. Barrowman won the ball about 25 yards out, but the ref saw an infringement from somebody else that no one else did. Scunthorpe tried a corny “go to take the kick, but pretend to get it wrong, then slip it to one side quickly and hit the shot” routine, which wouldn’t have fooled anyone. It did, however, manage to fool our defense and keeper completely. MacKenzie, the “shooter”, fortunately scuffed his shot somewhat, but Oakes, unfortunately, made a complete pig’s ear of going for the shot and missed it completely.

2 - 1 down at half time, not playing well and some elments of the crowd getting restless. Sounds familiar.

The second half started much like the first had gone, with a Walsall just the better side, if anything, but failing to find any fluency. Osborn was replaced by Demontagnac in an attempt to liven things up, to not much effect, before the moment which changed the character of the game completely. Devlin went up for the ball with Foster, caught him with an elbow, which the ref saw as deliberate and received a straight red. Foster had to be replaced after receiving treatment, so, whether intentional or not, Devlin did catch him.

The rest of the game was as exciting as you could wish. Keates and Smith decided to start tackiling everything like tigers, as the aggrieved players’ spirit got them going. Eventually, a long punt forward found Barrowman running clear of the defence and, as the keeper advanced, he cooly lobbed the ball over him for the equaliser. It was no more than deserved at the time.

The remainder of the match was end to end stuff, with the 11 men just having the edge over the 10, well as we were playing now. Oakes at least atoned for his error when parrying a relatively straightforward shot out back to a forward instead of sideways, by somehow twisting in mid air to get a hand to the ball and knock it out for a corner.

All in all, although a relief when the whistle went, we played well with 10 men and had chances to win it.

As for the performances? Oakes was at fault with the second goal (and maybe should have got closer to the first) and didn’t inspire confidence. Pead and Roper were solid, Mills got better and better as the game wore on and Wright proved yet again he isn’t a full back, getting constantly caught out of position. You can hardly complain when he was just filling in in an emergency, however.

Barrowman looked lost most of the time and doesn’t look to be the answer to our problems up front, yet, at least. There is some promise there, however, and he took his goal well. As or Timm, we looked to have a better shape the moment he went off, which says a lot.

The midfield was where we stuttered most. Osborn did some good things and some bad, Smith similarly (although he looked far, far better when he moved inside). Keates was easily the pick of the middle of the park. Oh. And Devlin. Mostly anonymous, looked unable to beat his man, lost his pace. He now will, presumably get a three game ban for violent conduct, so we’ve got 25 minutes out of him, then an injury that kept him out for three or four games, then 60 minutes and then a three game ban. Not, it would appear, the best of signings.

All in all, though, we did look fitter and were trying harder, especially when not in possession. I think the basis is there for someone to improve on.