A very tenuous link to today's game... Porngate !!!Saints travelled to the Midlands today for what promised to be another difficult away trip. We were playing a Walsall side, currently residing one place below the playoff positions due to four wins out of their last five matches. Walsall have taken the ‘naming rights’ shilling and their ground is now known as the Banks’s Stadium which sounds really crap. I have visited the Bescot (as it should be known) on one previous occasion, a gig by The Wonder Stuff in 1991. We asked a local how to get there and he said that ‘you go roit at the randabowt, then roit again, followed by another roit’ (you have to say this out loud to get the effect). I had a great time that day and was hoping that today, the mighty Saints had a similarly great day and came back with another 3 points.
Pards tinkered with the the team again with Connolly being passed fit to take the place of Waigo up front but not so far up front that he’s 10 yards offside. This meant a 4-4-2 formation with James on the right of midfield. The strength of the bench was also good with Antonio, Waigo, Mellis, Trotman and Thomas being present alongside the promising Paterson and Bleak Forecast who has yet to get near the first team.
It was a fairly even start to the game with both sides having periods of pressure. The first real incident happened on 19 minutes when Connolly was quite clearly assaulted in the Walsall penalty area and was left sat on his bum having been thrown there by a defender. No penalty of course. Unperturbed, the Saints kicked on and took the lead on the half hour when a straight ball from James to Connolly cut out the entire Walsall back four (who had all gone ‘roit’ when they should have gone left) and The Irishman ran on before expertly finishing across the keeper into the far corner with his right foot. Yet another outstanding finish from a class act who proved Walsall manager Chris Hutchings pre-match assertion of ‘Connolly is too good for this league’ correct.
As an aside, Hutchings is a manager I remember from Bradford City as I have a mate who supports them. He took over from Paul Jewell after he’d kept them up in the Prem one year and I think he lost just about every match of his admittedly brief tenure. I believe he also took over from Jewell at Wigan following the Porngate Saga.
Stop laughing at the memory of the picture of Paul Jewell on the front of the News of the World and get back to the match…. A switch appeared to have been flicked with the first goal and Saints took over, looking the finish the game off. It didn’t take long for Connolly to wriggle free again on the right and cut in before firing in a shot that defllected nicely into the path of the onrushing Hammond who, despite having half the goal to aim at, slid it under the keeper.
Half time, Walsall 0 Saints 2… more goals wanted... and a clean sheet please.
Despite continuing to batter Walsall at the start of the 2nd half but it took until the hour mark for the icing to be put on the cake as Connolly this time turned provider, poking the ball through to Lambert who had enough about him to practically fall over the ball, regain his balance and slam a left footed shot into the far corner.
Saints now had the task to see out the last half an hour without conceding a goal and managed to succeed in this task for about 45 seconds as Walsall cut in down our right before Byfield was teed up for an easy finish. It seems churlish to moan about a goal conceded when you’re 3-0 up but it is bloody annoying nonetheless.
Connolly was given a deserved rest and replaced with Antonio who looked lively in the 20 minutes that remained, forcing Ince into a decent save to prevent a fourth. There was little or no attacking threat from Walsall in the closing phase of the game and Saints recorded a decent victory at a bit of a canter.
Part of me was worried going into this game because of Walsall’s league position but when you look at the relative resources of the clubs (our gates are approximately 4 times higher for example) we really shouldn’t be losing to teams like this… and we didn’t. Yet another 3-1 success on the road and we’ve shot up to 15th place in the table. As a precautionary note, it’s worth mentioning that Brighton occupy the last relegation spot and they are only 2 points behind us but precaution be damned as we are no longer looking down.…. but looking up and we are only 9 points off the playoffs. There are still 26 games to go and after today’s win, I am beginning to think that maybe we can get there… stranger things have happened.
Here’s a league table… looking upwards…
.................PL DIF PTS
6 Swindon .......18 + 2 31
==========================
7 Bristol Rovers 20 - 3 31
8 Walsall .......20 + 4 30
9 MK Dons .......20 - 2 30
10 Millwall .....20 + 6 29
11 Hartlepool ...20 + 1 26
12 Carlisle .....20 - 3 24
13 Yeovil .......20 - 4 23
14 Southend .....20 - 4 23
15 Southampton ..20 +10 22
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