The Saddlers safely overcame the first obstacle in their quest for Wembley glory this season by taming 2-1 Cheltenham in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy last night. PJD was at the game - share your views on the message board:

Just got back from the match which was an excellent away trip for many reasons - I was back home by 10.30, it only cost a tenner to get in, the entertainment put on by the local inbred morons was fantastically funny, the facilities and legroom at Whaddon Road were excellent, the linesman and referee failed to spoil the match despite both making their best efforts to do so, oh and Walsall won in a game they were losing - always the best way to win I think.

It was an excellent performance by the lads, Jabo and Ricketts caused their defence problems all evening, Hughes was excellent and Mattis was even better, Taundry, Gerrard, Boertin and Palmer were all solid and the latter’s dead ball delivery was superb and Roberts despite having a mare for their goal was also otherwise solid.

The two odd men out were Gilmartin, who literally had nothing to do all night (apart from pick the ball out of the net after Roberts error gave him no chance), but still contrived a “calamity James” moment after which he went to pot and Nicholl’s who was the worst outfield player by a country mile. Sorry to say he barely seemed able to control the ball or make a pass to a Walsall player. Once he was replaced with Ishy our attacking threat increased massively.

I am not sure what the shots on target totals were but I would guess they were about 6 to 1 in Walsall’s favour. Cheltenham looked like a Martin Allen team, lots of huff and puff, but carried very little threat. Their two best chances both came from Walsall errors.

Once again special mention has to go to the three Cheltenham fans that were thrown out, especially the little fat one wearing a Man Utd top - they were absolutely priceless. I doubt if they had a brain cell between them.