Those people who make the outrageous claims about the extra entertainment of the Premiership should have joined the crowd of over 6,500 at Bescot Stadium yesterday. This was a superb advertisement for Division 2, as two teams committed to playing football battled out a great game, one which Walsall came out on top of, just to crown matters.

There were surprises in the home line up, with Westwood and Roper being injured and Bossu replaced in the squad at the last minute by McKeown, without explanation. Pead came in a right back and Dann at centre back, for his second start. The line up, in a 4 4 2, was:

Ince, Pead, Dann, Gerrard, Taylor, Wright, Dobson, Keates, Fox, Sam and Butler.

The bench was: McKeown, Kinsella, Bedeau, Demontagnac and Constable.

Wycombe had the best of the first half.

Despite missing leading scorer Jermaine Easter, they lined up in their usual 3 5 2 and the extra man in the middle of the park made a lot of difference. Dobson and Keates were under constant pressure when in possession, but, fortunately, the defence was looking very, very solid.

Despite the quality on show, however, chances were difficult to come by. Former Saddler Stefan Oakes had a long range effort blocked and Bloomfield had another long range effort tipped over by Ince, which, to be fair, he was never going to let in. Wycombe’s extra possession only seemed to be leading them to make shots from distance, despite the constant threat from the excellent looking right wing back, Chris Palmer.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Mark Wright was giving the visitors trouble down his flank and Sam and Butler always looked as if they could create something.

Keates dragged one decent opportunity wide and Wright should have done better with a half volley on the far post from a superb Taylor cross, but the opening goal, when it came, was a bit of a surprise, as it came from an unlikely looking mistake. The Saddlers won a corner on their left, Mark Wright, not for the first or last time on the day, produced a superb cross and Hector Sam was left with oceans of space to nod home the free-est of all free headers as the defence looked at each other.

Grant and Oakes then both had long range efforts, which Ince had covered, but the best chance came to Martin Butler, as he roughed a defender out of the ball, drew the keeper and was then unlucky to see his piledriver hit Young on the arm, as he tried to make himself “big”, and the ball went over.

It’s a debatable point, I suppose, but I’d say manager Paul Lambert made a mistake at the start of the second half. he changed from the 3 5 2, which had been giving them so much possession, to a 4 4 2. Things immediately got a little easier for Keates and Dobson.

Wycombe, not unnaturally, got off to a bright start, but Ince was commanding his area superbly. He also found time to tip over yet another long range effort from Oakes.

Dicky Dosh then made his first change, moving Fox to left back, Keates out wide and bringing on Kinsella for Taylor. The idea was, presumably, to give the midfield a bit of solidity. The pace and quality of the game, however, was shown when Kinsella’s first two touches were fouls from mistimed tackles.

He soon sorted himself out, though, when the ball arrived at his feet some 20 yards out and he made room before hitting a sweetly struck drive into the bottom right hand corner, giving the ‘keeper no chance.

Wycombe then threw the kitchen sink at us, but the Saddlers always looked capable of getting another as well. DD bought off the tiring Wright and Hector Sam for Bedeau and Constable, to give us more pace on the break.

Mooney slipped Gerrard for one of the few times in the game, only for Ince to produce a superb parry and Stonebridge should have done better with another chance, but Ince’s catching was magnificent and all the rest of the shots he had to deal with were from long range.

At the other end, however, Pead supplied a sublime cross which Dean Keates headed wide when he really should have scored.

In the end, the Saddlers edged this encounter between two teams that will be there or thereabouts this season, unless one of them has a disastrous run of form. Certainly Wycombe were easily the best side I’ve seen at Bescot in the League this season and they almost gave us as much trouble as Bolton.

Man of the Match? The sponsors gave a joint one to Pead and Keates, but I wouldn’t presume to pick anyone out. This was a superb team effort in which everyone, including all of the subs, played a full part.