Walsall share points after another fightback
Nov 23 2009 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail
IF PRACTICE makes perfect, Chris Hutchings must be fast becoming a virtuoso of the art of handing out half-time rollickings.
Walsall are unbeaten in four games, tenth in League One and involved, in a small way, in the play-offs equation. They have laid a decent platform for their season.
Makes you wonder what might happen if they start switching on before 4pm on Saturdays.
The Saddlers arrived at rainswept Griffin Park on the back of three successive wins, but at half-time Brentford’s fans were scratching their heads as to how.
The Bees led through Ben Strevens’ 11th-minute header and would have been home and hosed if their pacy approach play was matched by penalty-box precision.
Walsall were well and truly second best, particularly in the middle third, where none of their four players imposed themselves.
Then came the break and out came the well-worn Hutchings half-time hair-dryer.
A few tactical points, accompanied by a forceful demand that socks be pulled up, did the necessary. A big improvement followed, most of all from that midfield quartet.
Matt Richards got involved on the left. Dwayne Mattis and Mark Bradley took control of the centre.
And on the right there was Steve Jones, emerging from first-half hibernation to score his fifth goal in six games and again show that, when he gets on a charge, League One defenders struggle to cope. All told it was a display to split the Saddlers’ 202 travelling fans. Glass half-full or half-empty?
Optimists could argue that the play-offs are very much on if Walsall can build upon their good halves. Pessimists would point out that if the good halves dry up, what’s left is relegation fodder.
Before half-time, Brentford played with the brightness of a team fresh from a transfusion of four loan signings.
The most eye-catching, Spurs’ 17-year-old John Bostock, was well-policed by Netan Sansara, but still the Bees swarmed all over the sluggish Saddlers.
Strevens headed home Myles Weston’s cross and Walsall would have been dead and buried but for two saves by Clayton Ince and excellent last-ditch tackles by Sansara and Manny Smith.
But after the break Walsall discovered you didn’t have to knock too hard on the hive to rattle the Bees.
Troy Deeney and Darren Byfield squandered chances before Byfield’s ferreting left Brentford’s defence in a lather and Jones pounced to score from 12 yards.
Walsall looked much the likelier side to grab a winner as the Bees faded in a manner that will surely leave Hutchings’ side fancying their chances for when they return to Griffin Park in the FA Cup next Saturday.
Meanwhile, when Oldham visit The Banks’s Stadium tomorrow, perhaps Hutchings should hand out his half-time rollicking before the game.
BRENTFORD (4-4-2): Szczesny; Osborne, Wilson, Balkestein, Dickson; Bostock, Bean, O’Connor, Weston (Wood, 53); Strevens, MacDonald (Kabba, 78). Not used: Moore, Bennett, Foster, Taylor, Hunt.
WALSALL (4-4-2): Ince 6; Weston 6, Smith 7, Hughes 7, ★ SANSARA 7; Jones 7, Mattis 6, Bradley 6, Richards 6; Byfield 7, Deeney 6 (Parkin, 85). Not used: Oxley, McDonald, O’Keefe, Westlake, Till.
Referee: G Sutton (Lincoln).
