The Saddlers failed to get off to a good start at the beginning of the second half, as their tempo dropped, inviting the home team on.

The main fault was again the central midfield, where we failed to get a grip on the game, despite DD changing things, moving Gerrard to centre back, Dann to right back and Pead into the middle of the park.

Ian Roper, however, was immense. Despite picking up a couple of knocks (as usual), his marshalling of the back line was exemplary as Walsall repelled wave after wave of Accrington attacks.

Eventually, pressure had to tell as Stanley won a (dubious, in the opinion of the Fay Controller) free kick right on the edge of the box. Ian Craney stepped up and hit his shot around the wall into the top corner.

The Walsall of the last few seasons would have collapsed at this point, but not Dicky Dosh’s men. With just over five minutes to go, he replaced the tiring Constable with Demontagnac. Almost immediately, Ishy got away dowm the left and flun ghis cross over. mark Wright got something on the ball (the Fat Controller thinks iot may even have been his backside) and the ball trickled over the line for three points on a ground where others will struggle this season.

Not a vintage performance, in fact far from it, but job done.

The suprise for the Saddlers this afternoon was the starting line up. It had emerged on WM last night that Martin Butler was carrying a knock and he was duly replaced by James Constable. Skipper Michael Dobson was, however, also missing from the sixteen and Gerrard moved into midfield in his spot, with Roper returning at the back.

The first half, however, was a story of that new look midfield not working, according to the Fat Controller at the ground.

Keates and Gerrard were struggling to cope with a neat looking Accrington side and the fact that Clayton Ince seemd to be having one of his more indecisive days didn’t help. That said, most of the home side’s attacking threat was from set pieces and they were failing to make any clear cut chances.

The Saddlers also looked incapable of producig much, until, and somewhat against the run of play, Gerrard spread a pass out the left wing, in came the cross, Constable’s looping header was tipped onto the bar and Hector Sam was on hand, as all good strikers are, to knock home the rebound.

Half Time Accrington Stanley 0 Walsall 1