BIG Claude Gnakpa could be the man to help steer Walsall away from the League One relegation zone and help them beat Dagenham & Redbridge in tomorrow night’s FA Cup second-round replay at the Banks’s Stadium.
The former Luton Town hot-shot has made fewer than a dozen full appearances this season, scoring just one goal, but after going on as a 54th-minute substitute against table-topping Charlton he gave the lightweight attack some much-needed muscle as the team earned a precious point.
He replaced the ineffective Andrew Halliday, on loan from Middlesbrough, and immediately delivered the pace, power and threat in the air which the Saddlers have so clearly needed for weeks.
On this showing the Frenchman deserves to start matches because the Saddlers have the worst scoring record in the division, are still in the relegation zone and have been dubbed ‘one-goal Walsall’. In only four of their 20 league games have they managed to score more than once.
Some of the team’s best performances have been reserved for clashes with the big clubs in the division and they certainly gave promotion-bound Charlton a scare, even though the draw meant they have won only once in the last 15 league games.
But ever-optimistic manager Dean Smith was pleased with his players’ display in preventing the Addicks register a ninth successive win in all competitions.
“It’s an unbeaten run we have started (four games) and we are organised and hard to beat,” he said.
Central defenders Oliver Lancashire and Manny Smith, currently keeping fit-again skipper Andy Butler out of the side, were excellent and Manny Smith said: “We went out there to win and it was a good, all-round performance. We kept our shape and had a good, all-round understanding.”
Walsall led from the 36th minute when Richard Taundry’s short corner was hammered against Lancashire by Mat Sadler, leaving Jon Macken to drive in the rebound. Yann Kermorgant headed Charlton’s point-saver seconds from half-time.
Sadler was sent off in the 89th minute for a second bookable offence and will miss the FA Cup replay.
WALSALL (4-4-2): Walker 8; Beevers 7, Smith 8, LANCASHIRE 9, Sadler 7; Halliday 5 (Gnakpa 54, 7), Taundry 7, Chambers 7, Paterson 6 (Bowerman 75, 6); Macken 7 (Peterlin 84), Nicholls 6. Not used: Grof, Butler.
CHARLTON ATHLETIC (4-4-2): Hamer; Solly, Morrison, Taylor, Wiggins; Green (Wagstaff 73), Russell, Hollands, Ephraim; Wright-Phillips, Kermogant. Subs: (not used) Sullivan, Euell, Pritchard, Cort.
