Typical Saddlers, isn’t it? There you are, doing well for a change and you get a chance to show off in front of a national live TV audience and what do you do? Produce a really sterile game.

Mind you, it does take two to tango and Paul Ince’s priority as the new Macclesfield manager seems to have been to tighten up at the back, leading to him flooding the midfield in a 3 5 2. Quite how that appraoch equates with winning a home cup tie is another matter, unless he’s playing for penalties.

Walsall should have had enough to put this lot away despite Ince’s tactics, however, except too many players went missing on the night. Richard Money went with what is, in the absence of the injured Gerrard and Westwood, his favoured team and line up of:

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

The story of the game can be told very simply, however. Macclesfield put us under pressure for 15 minutes, after which the referee might as well have blown the final whistle.

Walsall just didn’t get a grip in midfield. Keates’s night was summed up by the fact that his first four challenges were all free kicks, the last of which was on the edge of our own area. After that, he did produce the occasional decent pass, but was, in the main, awful. Fox was anonymous most of the evening and Mark Wright had the kind of game not even the Mark Wright Appreciation Society could possibly appreciate (other than some good set piece delivery).

To make things worse, Pead couldn’t find a red shirt to save his life (and was easily skinned on a few occasions), while Kris Taylor had also left his passing boots at home.

The result was that the two strikers were completely isolated and must have been wondering what the ball looked like.

Even with their extra possession, however, Macclesfield still only managed two shots on target all night and they were both dribbly little efforts straight at Ince. Walsall were no better, however, despite Keates hitting the outside of the near post with an inswinging corner and Hector Sam going close twice with a left foot piledriver and a well struck right foot long range effort.

Dicky Dosh tried to mix things up, withdrawing Sam for Wrack, so as to match Macclesfield in the middle of the park, but that failed to improve matters and he left bringing Bedeau on for the ineffective Mark Wright far too long.

Money’s last gamble was going to be to bring on Ishmel Demontagnac to attack down the left flank and try to stretch them, but that plan was thwarted by Pead, whose miserable performance was capped by a disgraceful challenge on Bullock which lead to a deserved straight red.

Quite what Macclesfield plan to do in the replay, I don’t know, but let’s hope they realise in future that the plan in Cup Ties when at home should be to try and win them, not keep a clean sheet.