It looks like this is going to be a season of cliches, as we were served up a game of two halves yesterday. The important thing is, however, that Richard Money yet again proved his tactical nous to change things at half time, so Walsall ran out reasonably comfortable winners in the end.

It didn’t look that way for the first 45 minutes, however.

Dicky Dosh decided to replace the injured Gerrard with Westwood and, much more surprisingly, moved Fox to left back and bought in Wrack on the left wing. During the first half, the changes didn’t work.

Central midfield was possibly the main cause of the labouring again, as the Dobson/Keates partnership just couldn’t get going. This time, however, the entire left of the side compounded that, as Keates and Wrack weren’t getting in the game and Fox couldn’t find his passing range at all.

The fact that Craig Pead’s distribution was all to pot just helped a situation where there was little tempo to the side and very little constructive passing.

Former Walsall triallist Jamie Ward was causing problems with his pace, but it was also possible to see how Torquay have failed to score in the previous six games, as Ince had only long range efforts to deal with, other than a chance for ward just before half time, when Westwood, feeling an injury, was slow to react and the Torquay forward lifted the chance over the bar.

At the other end, chances were also few and far between, but Dobson had a good effort blocked, a Keates free kick was well saved low down by Abbey and Wright, Butler and Sam combined superbly to set up Keates, who drove the best chance of the half well wide.

The Saddlers came out after half time a completely different outfit and not just becuase the injured Westwood had been replaced by Dann. The tempo was stepped up and, for the first time, midfielders (notably Wrack) and defenders (notably Pead) started to make runs ahead of the forwards, all to much greater effect.

The pressure told almost straight away, as we forced a couple of corners and Keates swung a perfect in-swinger to the far post for Roper to power his header home. Two in a season? Unheard of!

From then on, there was really only one team in it. Butler had a header tipped over, Wrack had a couple of chances blocked, Fox shot well wide when in a superb position and Butler was completely unmarked, Dobson had a chance blocked and Abbey made an excellent save from Keates.

There were a couple of substitutions added too, with Taylor replacing Sam, allowing us to move to a 4 4 1 1, with Wrack playing off the striker (and looking very, very good) and Bedeau getting a run out against his former employers.

Bedeau had time to show his worth with one superb piece of play which went unnoticed by many. Roper went up for a free kick, got caught and went down injured. As Torquay broke, guess who had dropped into the centre half position to cover? Yet another example of the superb organisation of Dicky Dosh’s side.

Man of the Match? Absolutely no doubt whatsoever, it was the colossus that was Ian Roper. If that bloke isn’t in the PFA team of the Year for Division 2, there’s no justice in the world.

With Lincoln and Swindon both losing, it’s onwards and upwards, though!