Whatever Keith Curle and Colin Lee put in the Torquay player’s tea at half time worked, as they dominated the second half possession completely, getting a goal back via Reid. Clayton Ince, however, had a superb half, dominating his box and holding the defense together.

Richard Money even found time to give debuts to Manny Smith in place of Craig Pead, with Westwood moving to full back and to Troy Deeney, who came on in place on Martin Butler.

The Fat Controller reports that both had good debuts, with Smith getting in some important headers and Deeney almost scoring with his first touch, after being out through, only for a defender to just get a tackle in in time.

Despite one or two “hairy” moments, the Fat Controller says that we always just had the edge, despite all the second half possession being in our half, as opposed to the first forty five minutes, when all of the play was in the Torquay half of the field, even though they had more of the ball.

The Fat Controller’s man of the match, after a lot of thought, goes to Dean Keates, for the job the midfield did covering in fron of the defense.

However, this turned out to be a pivotal day in the Walsall promotion campaign, as results elsewhere went our way, with Swindon only getting a point at Hereford (and picking up no fewer than six bookings in the process), while the Franchise crashed 1 - 2 at home to Alan Buckley’s Grimsby and Hartlepool’s long unbeaten run came to an end at Barnet.

With just five games left, we are in second place, two points behind Hartlepool, with Swindon in third, four points behind and the Franchise fourth, a whole seven points behind.

Meanwhile, Richard Money has said that the three absentees, Harper, Cooper and Sam are all likely to be fit for Monday.

Direct from the Fat Controller at Plainmoor.

This has been a stroll in the afternoon sunshine for the Saddlers so far today. Torquay have had plenty of possession, but haven’t looked like breaking Walsall down once, while the boys took two of the three chances presented to them in the first half.

First Kris Taylor, restored to left back, produced a good cross to the far post, where Trevor Benjamin was on hand to nod home his first goal for the club after ten minutes.

Not long afterwards, Benjamin was put through, only to be blatantly pulled back for a nailed on penalty, which Dean Keates duly tucked away.

Late on in the half, Darren Wrack missed a chance he should really have put away. 3 - 0 and it would have been all over. 2 - 0 and it probably is.

Meanwhile, the Franchise are losing at home, Swindon are only drawing and Hartlepool are losing away.

With another game to closely follow today’s. there was always a chance that Richard Money would make some changes for this game, but the ones that he has have come as a bit of a surprise. Granted that Kevin Harper has been suffering from a groin strain for a couple of weeks (he was doubtful for the Accrington game at one point), but both the on-loan Kevins have been left out of the 16. The Saddlers line up:-

Ince, Pead, Gerrard, Westwood, Fox, Wrack, Dobson, Keates, Taylor, Butler, Benjamin.

Youngsters Manny Smith and, most pleasingly, Troy Deeney have made the bench of:

Bossu, Wright, Smith, Bedeau and Deeney.